Societal pressures for greater sustainability can encourage firms to target part of their innovation activities at ecological initiatives (i.e., eco‐innovation). Yet, depending on their value function, firms can respond differently to such pressures and exhibit variance in their eco‐innovation activities. In this paper, we investigate the idea that a firm’s ownership structure may play a significant role in determining its engagement in eco‐innovation. Specifically, we propose that ownership by family blockholders increases the value attached to the company’s reputation and that this, in turn, stimulates higher levels of eco‐innovation. In other words, we model the company reputation motive as a key mediator in the relationship between family ownership and firm‐level eco‐innovation. To account for family firm heterogeneity, we also model the moderating role of owners’ intention to pass the business on to the next family generation (transgenerational intentions) and of the extent to which these owners reside in the firm’s local community (local embeddedness). As theoretical backdrop, our study builds on institutional theory and the mixed gamble logic. To test our hypotheses, we use a large sample of German firms and nonlinear moderated mediation regression analysis. Results reveal that family ownership is positively related to the introduction of eco‐innovations by firms, in part because of the stronger emphasis being placed on the company’s reputation. We find that this effect is strongest when the owning‐family has transgenerational intentions. As such, this study advances our understanding of firm‐level drivers of eco‐innovation. In view of the prevalence of family‐owned firms and the mounting importance of ecological sustainability, it is valuable to extend knowledge on the contingent and indirect effect of family ownership on eco‐innovation.

中文翻译：

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生态创新决策中的非财务考量：家庭所有权和声誉关注的作用

更大的可持续性的社会压力可以鼓励企业将其部分创新活动用于生态计划（即生态创新）。但是，根据其价值功能，企业可以对这种压力做出不同的反应，并在其生态创新活动中表现出差异。在本文中，我们调查了一种观点，即企业的所有权结构可能在决定其参与生态创新方面起着重要作用。具体来说，我们建议家族大股东的所有权可以增加公司声誉的价值，而这反过来又可以激发更高水平的生态创新。换句话说，我们将公司声誉动机建模为家族所有权和公司级生态创新之间关系的关键中介。为了说明家族企业的异质性，我们还模拟了所有者将业务转移给下一代家庭的意图（跨代意图）以及这些所有者在公司本地社区中居住的程度（本地嵌入度）的调节作用。作为理论背景，我们的研究建立在制度理论和混合赌博逻辑的基础上。为了检验我们的假设，我们使用了大量的德国公司样本和非线性调节中介回归分析。结果表明，家族所有制与公司引入生态创新有正相关关系，部分原因是更加重视公司的声誉。我们发现，当拥有家庭具有跨代意图时，这种影响最为明显。因此，本研究提高了我们对企业层面生态创新驱动力的理解。