Firm ownership and ESG performance in European agri‐food companies: The mediating effect of risk‐taking and time horizon
Megi Gega,
Julia Höhler,
Jos Bijman and
Alfons Oude Lansink
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2025, vol. 32, issue 1, 1161-1181
Abstract:
The environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) performance of European agri‐food companies is crucial amidst sustainability challenges. Employing property rights and agency theory, we investigate the influence of firm ownership structure on ESG performance, and the mediating role of risk‐taking and time horizon. A recursive system of equations is employed to test the model using data from 936 European firms. The findings indicate that investor‐owned firms (IOFs) outperform family firms and cooperatives in terms of ESG performance. Family firms demonstrate a longer time horizon, while IOFs exhibit greater risk‐taking. Risk‐taking and time horizon are positively and negatively associated with ESG performance, respectively. However, we find no evidence of a mediation effect. This paper contributes to the agency and property rights literature by exploring the implications of ownership structure for other firm characteristics and ESG performance, and outlines implications for policymakers and managers in the development of focused interventions towards sustainability.
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.3008
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:corsem:v:32:y:2025:i:1:p:1161-1181
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().