Family and non-family firms’ corporate social responsibility during crises: The role of organizational psychological capital and readiness

This study investigates the interplay between organizational psychological capital, readiness, and corporate social responsibility in family and non-family firms in times of crisis and inherent resource scarcity. To explain how family firm status translates into sustained CSR engagement under crisis conditions, we model organizational psychological capital and readiness as parallel mediators of the relationship between family firm status and corporate social responsibility. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling on data from 577 firms during the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings show that family firms exhibited greater crisis readiness and corporate social responsibility engagement than non-family firms, but not higher levels of organizational psychological capital. The latter nonetheless contributed directly to corporate social responsibility across firms regardless of ownership. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on CSR in family firms during crises by showing that family firms do not sustain corporate social responsibility through higher levels of organizational psychological capital, but through stronger crisis readiness.