Does corporate social responsibility help the longevity of centenarian family firms in Europe?

Using a sample of 21 centenarian family firms from European countries over the 2008–2020 study period, we verify if corporate social responsibility (CSR) en-
gagement can help the longevity of the centenarian family firms. In particular, con-
sistent with the stakeholder theory and resource-based view, we find that the cor-
porate social performance (CSP) has a positive impact on the corporate financial performance of family firms, even during a period affected by international finan-
cial crisis that stressed the survival of firms. Hence, based on the concept of CSR as a co-specialized asset that improves other assets, such as resilience, corporate
identity, reputation and stakeholder influence capability, our results show that CSR
engagement represents a key to longevity and a solution to the potential trade-off
between the socioemotional wealth and the financial performance of centenarian
family firms.