Abstract: Based on the social-emotional wealth and clue consistency theory, this paper discusses the normative effect of family firms’ social responsibility on their illegal behavior. Using the data of Chinese listed family enterprises from 2007 to 2019, this research reaches the following conclusions. First, family firms with better social responsibility performance will care more about their reputation, so as to reduce the possibility of illegal behavior in the later stage. Second, family logic and business logic have a certain effect on the above functions. On the one hand, from the perspective of family logic, those firms that family members participate more in have more motivation to maintain the market reputation brought about by family corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, from the perspective of business logic, family businesses must consider economic benefits and institutional pressure caused by their peers. When family businesses are faced with more serious financial risks, they will focus more on the short-term and rapid recovery of the economic performance of the enterprise, so that the restraint effect of social responsibility on illegal behavior will be weakened. Last but not least, when a family business faces the fierce pressure from peer social responsibility, the restraint effect of social responsibility on illegal behavior will be further strengthened. This research not only provides a new perspective for a better understanding of family business behavior, but also further enriches the research results of social responsibility and illegal behavior.

Key words: social responsibility, family participation, financial distress, peer pressure, illegal behavior