When Do Family Firms “Walk the Talk” in Sustainability? The Role of Socioemotional Wealth

A central debate concerns under which conditions sustainability orientation—a firm’s attitudinal disposition toward creating social and environmental value alongside economic value—translates into concrete environmental practices in some family firms but not others. Drawing on socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, we argue that specific socioemotional priorities shape whether family firms “walk the talk” in their environmental practices. Using survey data from 182 Turkish family firms, we find that sustainability orientation is more strongly associated with environmental practices when owning families emphasize preserving the business across generations (renewal of family bonds), but not when they show stronger emotional attachment to the firm.