Extant research has primarily focused on the economic drivers and outcomes of corporate environmental performance. This trajectory oversimplifies the motives for environmental strategies across all firm types and particularly overlooks how firm ownership presents other motives for environmental strategies. In this study, we leverage institutional theory to examine how family motives, underpinned by family members' desire to gain or preserve family legitimacy and socio-emotional wealth, affect ISO 14001 certification. Using firm-level data, we find that family ownership has a positive effect on ISO 14001 certification. This effect is stronger for firms whose names include the family name and also for firms located closer to large cities. Our study contributes to nonmarket strategy literature by showing that family motives underpin firms’ environmental initiatives. It also contributes to institutional theory by delineating the levels of legitimacy that spur nonmarket strategy in family firms.

现有研究主要集中在企业环境绩效的经济驱动因素和结果上。这种轨迹过分简化了所有公司类型的环境战略动机，特别是忽视了公司所有权如何呈现环境战略的其他动机。在这项研究中，我们利用制度理论来研究家庭动机（以家庭成员获得或维护家庭合法性和社会情感财富的愿望为基础）如何影响 ISO 14001 认证。使用公司层面的数据，我们发现家族所有权对 ISO 14001 认证有积极影响。对于名称中包含姓氏的公司以及靠近大城市的公司，这种影响更为明显。我们的研究通过表明家庭动机支持企业的环境举措，为非市场战略文献做出了贡献。它还通过描述在家族企业中刺激非市场战略的合法性水平，对制度理论做出了贡献。