Are the Sins of the Father the Sins of the Sons, but Not the Daughters? Exploring How Leadership Gender and Generation Impact the Corporate Social Responsibility of Franchise Firms

María Fernández-Muiños, Kevin Money, Anastasiya Saraeva, Irene Garnelo-Gomez and Luis Vázquez-Suárez
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María Fernández-Muiños: IME Business School, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Paseo Francisco Tomás y Valiente s/n, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Kevin Money: Henley Business School, University of Reading, Greenlands Campus, Henley-on-Thames RG9 3AU, UK
Anastasiya Saraeva: Henley Business School, University of Reading, Greenlands Campus, Henley-on-Thames RG9 3AU, UK
Irene Garnelo-Gomez: Henley Business School, University of Reading, Greenlands Campus, Henley-on-Thames RG9 3AU, UK
Luis Vázquez-Suárez: IME Business School, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Paseo Francisco Tomás y Valiente s/n, 37007 Salamanca, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-20

Abstract: Emerging literature suggests that male leaders guide their companies more towards operations-related (OR) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and female leaders lead their companies more towards non-operation-related (Non-OR) CSR activities. Nevertheless, very little research has considered intergenerational issues in CSR practices. This study explores this question in a context unexplored to date, the franchise industry. We apply multivariate analysis to explore differences between franchisor leaders. Our results reveal that successor leaders engage their companies more in normative CSR than founding leaders. Contrary to our expectations, they also encourage more instrumental CSR activities compared to the founders. We found that female leaders promote normative CSR practices to a greater extent than their male counterparts. However, gender differences in instrumental CSR were only present for the group of current leaders, where men outperformed women. When we delved into the analyses by looking at the influence of the gender of the previous founder, we found that female heirs engage their companies at the same levels of instrumental CSR as their male heir counterparts. Implications for CSR practices in franchise firms and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; women in leadership; franchising; gender differences; intergenerational succession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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