The mediating effect of ethical codes on the link between family firms and their social performance Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros a ,L  azaro Rodríguez-Ariza b , Isabel-María García-S  anchez a , Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero a, * a Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Departamento de Administraci on y Economía de la Empresa, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain b Facultad de Ciencias Econ omicas y Empresariales, Departamento de economía financiera y contabilidad, Universidad de Granada, Spain This article brings together research on social performance, codes of ethics and family firms. Using a panel dataset composed of 547 internationally listed companies for the period 2002e2010, we test empirically whether the use of formal ethical codes could be a reason to explain the differences between social performance in family and non-family firms. We empirically show that family firms tend to present a lower social performance than non-family firms, and the use of formal ethical codes mediate such relationship. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Sustainability issues are beginning to play a renewed role in society, and social consciousness is gaining weight among citizens since it represents a way of integrating corporate business with social and environmental welfare. In this regard, social and environmental performance (i.e. corporate social performance) could be defined as a company's voluntary commitment to social development and environmental preservation, developed within the company's social sphere, as well as a responsible commitment to the people and social groups with whom the company interacts. It defines the company as a set of relationships, not just between owners and managers but also with parties or groups interested in the evolution of the company: employees, customers, suppliers, competitors, environment, and society (Adams, 2002). Nonetheless, companies are profit-making entities, and very few would subscribe to the idea that they can be persuaded to commit to environmental and social policies that benefit the community at a cost to insiders. Because corporate aims, strategies, management forms, and governance systems differ considerably between family and non-family firms (Haalien and Huse, 2005), their social and environmental commitment may also differ. In this respect, some previous studies (D eniz and Cabrera, 2005; Burak and Morante, 2007; L opez-Iturriaga and L opez-de- Foronda, 2011) agree, pointing out that family firms tend to have a lower social performance than non-family firms. Since family members have a relevant amount of investment in their own companies, they tend to be more committed to achieving the greatest possible financial return, relegating environmental and social commitment to the background. However, little or nothing is known about the indirect determinants that may justify such behaviour. From a wide range of possibilities, this study focuses on the use of formal ethical codes in family firms because: (i) on the one hand, they are a common tool of social and environmental performance designed for the explicit details of sustainable commitment (Agatiello, 2008; Erwin, 2011); and (ii) on the other hand, the degree of formal mechanism varies according to family firms and non-family firms. Concretely, this exploratory study proposes a mediating effect of formal ethical codes in the relationship between family ownership and social performance. This effect is tested on a sample of 547 international non-financial listed companies from different countries for the period 2002e2010. Our findings empirically confirm four statements: (i) family businesses tend to * Corresponding author. Multidisciplinary Institute for Enterprise (IME), Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Edificio FES, 37007 Salamanca, Spain. E-mail addresses: u77171@usal.es (B. Cuadrado-Ballesteros), lazaro@ugr.es (L. Rodríguez-Ariza), lajefa@usal.es (I.-M. García-S anchez), jenny_marfe@ usal.es (J. Martínez-Ferrero). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Long Range Planning journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/lrp http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2016.11.007 0024-6301/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Long Range Planning xxx (2016) 1e10 Please cite this article in press as: Cuadrado-Ballesteros, B., et al., The mediating effect of ethical codes on the link between family firms and their social performance, Long Range Planning (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2016.11.007