Patrizia Tettamanzi

Due to the growing sensitivity toward ESG practices, academic attention on the subject has also grown. However, only a few studies have taken into consideration the influence that negative events can exert on the quality of corporate communication on environmental, social and governance issues. The purpose of this chapter is, therefore, to fill the previous gap in the literature, studying the relationship between ESG disclosure and ESG controversies, from a legitimacy theory perspective. Findings confirm that companies may decide to improve the quality of their disclosure with the aim of restoring their legitimacy to operate in the market and mitigate the reputational impacts of adverse events.

The chapter aims to provide a comprehensive view of current practices on diversity, equity, and inclusion in family firms and tries to develop some suggestions for future research to improve the awareness of the importance of these virtuous practices.
A systematic literature review is conducted on the Scopus database. The final sample is subject to an analysis process devoted to identifying the main authors that contributed to the research field development and the main journals for publication number and is clustered considering the emergent topics. Findings show the main clusters present in the research area on diversity, inclusion, and equality in family firms and identify the most recent trends, to depict the evolution of academics’ interest over time. Finally, for each cluster, possible avenues for future research are proposed. Among the implications of the study, it allows identifying the main gaps in previous literature through the definition of an agenda useful for scholars to develop new studies in this research area. Instead, from a practical perspective, it could be a useful starting point for increasing the awareness by family firms on the relevance of these practices and improving the adoption of diversity and inclusion policies in their daily operations.