Do Customers Value CSR Disclosure? Evidence from Italian Family and Non-Family Firms

CSR reporting is a relevant part of a firm’s dialogue with stakeholders, therefore it is of interest to study whether this form of communication is an effective tool for gaining customers’ support. This paper addresses this issue by comparing the effect of CSR disclosure on family and non-family firms’ revenues. In doing so, we analyze a sample of Italian non-financial listed firms and we control for the effect of visibility to stakeholders, governance characteristics, risk, and several accounting variables. We find that CSR reporting has a significant effect on revenues when a company is characterized by consumer proximity, in terms of product or services visibility for consumers, but that the effect is positive for family firms and negative for non-family companies.