This study examines how family ownership influences sustainability practices in publicly listed firms by focusing on tensions between two socioemotional wealth (SEW) priorities: control preservation and reputation enhancement. Although family ownership is associated with distinctive sustainability behaviors, findings remain mixed due to conflicting SEW motivations. Using data from publicly listed firms in Korea, we find that family firms generally engage less in sustainability practices than nonfamily firms. However, this negative effect weakens at moderate ownership levels and reverses at high levels, suggesting a shift from control‐driven conservatism to reputation‐driven engagement. Additionally, we show that MBA‐educated executives on the board moderate this curvilinear relationship by balancing SEW priorities—reducing underinvestment at low ownership and curbing overinvestment at high ownership levels. Our findings contribute to the literature by identifying the conditions under which family ownership promotes or impedes sustainability efforts and by underscoring the critical role of board members' cognitive attributes in navigating SEW tensions within publicly listed family firms.

中文翻译：

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在公开上市家族企业中导航可持续发展实践：家族所有权的 U 型影响和 MBA 领导力的调节作用

本研究通过关注两个社会情感财富 （SEW） 优先事项之间的紧张关系：控制、维护和声誉增强，研究了家族所有权如何影响上市公司的可持续发展实践。尽管家族所有权与独特的可持续性行为有关，但由于 SEW 动机相互冲突，研究结果仍然喜忧参半。使用韩国上市公司的数据，我们发现家族企业通常比非家族企业参与可持续发展实践的人数较少。然而，这种负面影响在中等所有权水平下减弱，在高水平上则相反，这表明从控制驱动的保守主义转变为声誉驱动的参与。此外，我们表明，董事会中受过 MBA 教育的高管通过平衡 SEW 的优先事项来调节这种曲线关系——减少低所有权水平的投资不足和遏制高所有权水平的过度投资。我们的研究结果通过确定家族所有权促进或阻碍可持续发展努力的条件，并强调董事会成员的认知属性在驾驭上市家族企业内部的 SEW 紧张局势中的关键作用，为文献做出了贡献。