Increased awareness about the climate emergency, social and environmental inequalities, and ecological degradation influence the adoption of sustainability by business groups worldwide, including business groups owned by family. The owning families of business groups develop awareness and strategies to pursue ecological, social, and ethical opportunities. Research at the interface of family, business groups, and corporate sustainability is important to advance our understanding of the owning family’s influence on the sustainability approaches of the business group. Thus, in this chapter, we develop a conceptual framework that examines the commitment, control, and continuity of the owning family to its business group’s global corporate sustainability. We merge literature on family business, corporate sustainability, and sustainability science and develop a sustainability embeddedness perspective. Our proposed conceptual model on sustainability embeddedness offers insights to better understand diverse degrees and forms of involvement of the owning family leading to a variety of sustainability strategies, processes, and practices.
Digital edition published by Springer.