Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility in Family Owned Firms: A Case Study of a Greek Shipping Company

Abstract

Family firms are playing an important role in the world economy. In some countries, especially in Asia and continental Europe, the family firm is the main form of corporation.Although corporate governance is usually addressed to corporations with high dispersion, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility issues are also present in family firms. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the special issues related to these notions in family firms and the drivers that lead family firms to adopt such policies. For this purpose I used a case study research on a Greek shipping company, owned and controlled by a family. My findings indicate that the drivers for corporate governance and CSR originate mainly in personal values and personal ethics. Personal experiences and respect for the people and the environment lead to good practices and engagement of the stakeholders to the prosperity of the firm. Further studies are required in order to draw generalizations from the findings of this research.