CSR and Sustainability Drivers and Barriers: Does Business Context Matter?

Abstract

This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture on CSR and sustainability drivers and barriers, proposing a comparison between CSR and sustainability literature, and family business (FB) studies. It employed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 502 peer‐reviewed publications and adopted two analytic approaches: bibliometrics and manual content analysis. We found CSR and sustainability literature is broader, methodologically diverse, and centred on performance and institutional pressures, while FBs research is more recent, theoretically anchored in socioemotional wealth (SEW) and governance. We propose that CSR and sustainability adoption is context‐dependent and should not be viewed as a universal managerial process, due to influence by ownership, governance, strategic priorities, and firms' identity. We provide a comparative synthesis clarifying the differences in motivations and constraints that favour or impede the adoption of CSR and sustainability in different business contexts, FBs, and nonfamily businesses (NFBs), while offering a structured foundation for theoretical and managerial implications.