The Emergence of Sustainability Reporting in a Family Firm: A Case Study in the Luxury Fashion Industry

ABSTRACT

This study examines the emergence of sustainability reporting in a family‐owned luxury fashion firm. Using a qualitative case study and drawing on socioemotional wealth theory, it focuses on the preparation of a firm's first sustainability report. Findings show that reporting is not initiated as a technical compliance exercise but as a sustainability conceptualization process involving the translation of longstanding values and practices into a communicable, formal structure. This process unfolds through interrelated stages, with a specific configuration of socioemotional wealth dimensions shaping its development. The family influences this development through concerns for authenticity, control, and continuity. Sustainability reporting evolves through negotiation between internal identity and external expectations, supported by a governance core and cross‐functional collaboration. Rather than using disclosure instrumentally, the firm adopts a cautious and value‐driven approach, gradually moving toward selective transparency. In a context dominated by quantitative research, this study offers qualitative, process‐based insights into the micro‐dynamics through which sustainability reporting emerges in a family firm.