Risk and Sustainability in Family Businesses

This book explores ESG-related controversies in European family firms using bibliometric analysis to reveal seven thematic clusters that shape the current knowledge of risk in family enterprises. From ownership and board structure to innovation, internationalization, emotional dynamics, and crisis resistance, each cluster is examined to find its theoretical foundation, conceptual linkage, and managerial implications. To address persistent blind spots in the current literatures, the authors present a study based on various European listed companies examining how governance characteristics such as family ownership, board diversity, presence of family members on the board and board size affect the likelihood of ESG controversies in family firms versus non-family firms. The book concludes by outlining priority areas for future research, including governance and disclosure, succession and financial structure, innovation and digitization, ESG and reputational risk, and institutional context. This book is essential for scholars, students, researchers in family business, corporate governance, and strategic management as well as practitioners and policymakers concerned with ESG performance, sustainability, and long-term resilience in family firms.