scholarly journals Family Involvement in Middle Management and Its Impact on the Labor Productivity of Family Firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiongjing Hu ◽  
Yanlong Zhang ◽  
Jingjing Yao
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Labor Mobility ◽  
Middle Management ◽  
Level Structure ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Middle Level

ABSTRACTFamily business owners and researchers tend to overwhelmingly focus on the top-level structure of firms but ignore the middle-level practice – involving family members in the middle-management team. Compared to top managers at the strategic apex, middle-level managers are mainly responsible for internal operations and control, and the composition of the middle-management team has an immediate and direct impact on the overall workforce efficiency of family firms. Integrating agency theory and organizational justice perspective, we proposed that family involvement in middle management would have a negative impact on the labor productivity of family firms. We further corroborated this effect by identifying three boundary conditions at the individual (i.e., familial CEO), organizational (i.e., firm size), and regional (i.e., labor mobility) levels. Using a sample of 1,284 privately owned family firms in China, we found that family involvement in middle management, measured as the percentage of familial middle-level managers, was negatively associated with labor productivity. Furthermore, this negative relationship existed only when the CEO is a family member rather than a professional manager, when the size of the firm is large rather than small, or when the firm is located in regions with low rather than high labor mobility. These findings contribute to family business literature and provide practical implications for human resource management in family firms.

The effects of goals attainment on CEO-owner satisfaction and the role of family involvement

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-127
Author(s):  
Ondřej Machek ◽  
Jiří Hnilica
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Firm Value ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
Growth Increase ◽  
The Family ◽  
Owner Satisfaction

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the satisfaction with economic and non-economic goals achievement is related to the overall satisfaction with the business of the CEO-owner, and whether family involvement moderates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey among 323 CEO-owners of family and non-family businesses operating in the Czech Republic, the authors employ the OLS hierarchical regression analysis and test the moderating effects of family involvement on the relationship between the satisfaction with different goals attainment and the overall satisfaction with the business. Findings The main finding is that family and non-family CEO-owner’s satisfaction does not differ significantly when economic goals (profit maximisation, sales growth, increase in market share or firm value) and firm-oriented non-economic goals (satisfaction of employees, corporate reputation) are being achieved; both classes of goals increase the overall satisfaction with the firm and the family involvement does not strengthen this relationship. However, when it comes to external non-economic goals related to the society or environment, there is a significant and positive moderating effect of family involvement. Originality/value The study contributes to the family business literature. First, to date, most of the studies focused on family business goals have been qualitative, thus not allowing for generalisation of findings. Second, there is a lack of evidence on the ways in which family firms integrate their financial and non-financial goals. Third, the authors contribute to the literature on the determinants of personal satisfaction with the business for CEOs, which has been the focus on a relatively scarce number of studies.

scholarly journals The Determinants of Tax Aggressiveness in Family Firms: An Investigation of Italian Private Family Firms

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7654
Author(s):  
Giulia Flamini ◽  
Paola Vola ◽  
Lucrezia Songini ◽  
Luca Gnan
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Tax Planning ◽  
Agency Conflicts ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Tax Aggressiveness ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences

A recent stream of research has focused on tax aggressiveness, the downward management of taxable income through tax planning activities, and has analyzed its antecedents and consequences, mainly on public companies. Only very few studies, however, have been carried out in the context of private family business and have investigated whether some family firms are more tax aggressive than others, considering some specific features of family firms, such as their distinctive agency conflicts and socioemotional wealth. In this paper, we investigate the antecedents of tax aggressiveness in a sample of private Italian family firms. Our research findings show that tax aggressiveness is positively associated with ownership concentration, the presence of independent members in the board, and the adoption of reporting mechanisms. Instead, we found a negative relation between tax aggressiveness and the use of both strategic planning and a combination of managerial control systems (both planning and reporting mechanisms). We did not find any relation between family CEO and tax aggressiveness. In summary, overall, our findings show that family involvement in ownership, an independent board. and managerialization (the use of managerial mechanisms) are relevant antecedents of tax aggressiveness in private family businesses.

Does family involvement matter post IPO? Adding value through advertising in family firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanas Nik Nikolov ◽  
Yuan Wen
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Publicly Traded ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Family

PurposeThis paper brings together research on advertising, family business, and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm to examine performance differences between publicly traded US family vs non-family firms. The purpose of this paper is to understand the heterogeneity of family vs non-family firm advertising after such firms become publicly traded.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on the RBV of the firm, as well as on extensive empirical literature in family business and advertising research to empirically examine the differences between family and non-family firms in terms of performance.FindingsUsing panel data from over 2,000 companies across ten years, this research demonstrates that family businesses have higher advertising intensity than competitors, and achieve higher performance returns on their advertising investments, relative to non-family competitors. The results suggest that the “familiness” of public family firms is an intangible resource that, when combined with their advertising investments, affords family businesses a relative advantage compared to non-family businesses.Research limitations/implicationsFamily involvement in publicly traded firms may contribute toward a richer resource endowment and result in creating synergistic effects between firm “familiness” and the public status of the firm. The paper contributes toward the RBV of the firm and the advertising literature. Limitations include the lack of qualitative data to ground the findings and potential moderating effects.Practical implicationsUnderstanding how family firms’ advertising spending influences their consequent performance provides new information to family firms’ owners and management, as well as investors. The authors suggest that the “familiness” of public family firms may provide a significant advantage over their non-family-owned competitors.Social implicationsThe implications for society include that the family firm as an organizational form does not need to be relegated to a second-class citizen status in the business world: indeed, combining family firms’ characteristics within a publicly traded platform may provide firm performance benefits which benefit the founding family and other stakeholders.Originality/valueThis study contributes by highlighting the important influence of family involvement on advertising investment in the public family firm, a topic which has received limited attention. Second, it also integrates public ownership in family firms with the family involvement–advertising–firm performance relationship. As such, it uncovers a new pathway through which the family effect is leveraged to increase firm performance. Third, this study also contributes to the advertising and resource building literatures by identifying advertising as an additional resource which magnifies the impact of the bundle of resources available to the public family firm. Fourth, the use of an extensive panel data set allows for a more complex empirical investigation of the inherently dynamic relationships in the data and thus provides a contribution to the empirical stream of research in family business.

scholarly journals The effect of family business professionalization on dividend payout

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 971-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneleen Michiels ◽  
Lorraine Uhlaner ◽  
Julie Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Control Systems ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Tobit Regression ◽  
Dividend Payout ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Dividend Policies ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Privately Held

Purpose The topic of dividend policies of private family-controlled firms has aroused the interest of corporate finance and governance scholars and practitioners alike. However, a lot of questions concerning the dividends in privately held family firms remain unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a private family firm’s dividend payout is influenced by its degree of professionalization. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 492 small to medium-sized Belgian family-controlled businesses with Tobit regression models. Findings The results show that professionalized family-controlled firms pay higher dividends to their shareholders than do less-professionalized firms. In particular, the use of financial control systems, non-family involvement in governance systems, and the use of human resource control systems have a positive significant impact on the average level of dividend payout. Practical implications This study may be of interest to family business consultants and (potential) investors, as the results contradict the assumption that family businesses (especially those privately held) will always have a no or low dividend policy. Originality/value Investigating dividend payout in the context of other components than family ownership (in this case, professionalization) can broaden our understanding of dividend payout.

The Shareholder Role in the Family Business: Conflict of Interests and Objectives Between Nonemployed Shareholders and Top Management Team

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Vilaseca
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Top Management Team ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Conflict Of Interests ◽  
The Family ◽  
Firm Data ◽  
Commitment Level ◽  
Data Investigation

This article focuses on the role of the family business shareholder. Based on Agency Theory, it examines the elements that influence the conflict of interests and objectives between nonemployed shareholders and the top management team and its impact on commitment to the family firm. Data were empirically obtained from a field study of 156 shareholders and executives of 10 Spanish family firms. Combining quantitative and qualitative data, investigation results show that the degree of commitment to the family business is negatively correlated with the number of family members on the board of directors. Nevertheless, the most robust and statistically significant correlation (positive) was found between the number of external board members and the commitment level of the nonemployed shareholders. Regarding the mechanisms and processes implemented, results depended on the attention that the family business paid to the institutional overlap of the three subsystems: ownership, family, and business.

Family involvement and the impact of information and communication technology on performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Felicitas Gargallo Castel ◽  
Carmen Galve Górriz
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderated effect of family involvement on the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach According to agency and transaction cost theories, distinctive family business characteristics provide a unique context that favours a more efficient use of ICT. The authors perform a multivariate analysis that includes the moderating effect of family involvement and considers the possible endogeneity of the ICT variable. Findings The results, using a large panel of Spanish manufacturing firms, confirm the importance of family involvement for explaining differences in terms of the impact of this technology in family and non-family businesses. The relationship between ICT and performance is stronger for family firms than for non-family firms. Research implications The paper provides new evidence for the academic literature on ICT impact and family firms. It corroborates the importance of using an organizational perspective to explain differences in the effect of ICT on performance. Practical implications Family firms should understand the opportunities that family involvement offers regarding ICT impact on performance, and exploit this moderating effect to achieve competitive advantages. Originality/value No previous studies deal with the impact of family involvement on ICT-performance analysis. This study fills this gap and increases the understanding of how family business involvement moderates the ICT-performance relationship.

scholarly journals The Dynamic Model of Intellectual Capital Creation in Family Business: The Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tung-Shan Liao ◽  
Thi Thuy Dung Pham ◽  
Juin-Cherng Lu
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Dynamic Capabilities ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Knowledge Accumulation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

The paper's purpose is to examine the role of knowledge and learning as a dynamic capability that leads to competitive advantage in family firms. It further conceptually develops a model showing the relationship between intellectual capital, firm performance, and dynamic capabilities in family firms. Using past case studies related to the subject, this study highlights the importance of knowledge accumulation, integration, codification, and the preservation of socioemotional wealth as dynamic capabilities that allow a family firm to sense and seize business opportunities that transform the business to a competitive advantage. Findings from the case applications reveal that family businesses benefit from the accumulation of knowledge through expertise, skills, and employment of non-family members and having family involvement as strategic important assets that lead to increased value in family firms’ performance.

The “Most Wanted”: The Role of Family Strategic Resources and Family Involvement in CEO Succession Intention

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Campopiano ◽  
Andrea Calabrò ◽  
Rodrigo Basco
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Top Management Team ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Ceo Succession ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Cross Country

Stemming from familiness and the notion of nonimitable strategic resources, we investigate, in the presuccession phase, the role of acquisition and accumulation of family strategic resources, along with the way family involvement in the top management team affects resource mobilization and deployment, in determining the intention to choose either a family or a nonfamily member as the next CEO. Data from a cross-country double-respondent family business data set (Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices project) reveal that human capital is a significant family strategic resource reducing the intention to select a family CEO, although leveraging this resource by a top management team dominated by family members enhances this intention.

Do dissimilarities in the family involvement in family firms lead to different levels of indebtedness? Evidence from Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Comino-Jurado ◽  
Sonia Sánchez-Andújar ◽  
Purificación Parrado-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Business Group ◽  
Different Levels

PurposeThis paper examines how differences in the family involvement in a family business can influence its level of indebtedness. Assuming the influence of family is not the same for all family firms, we consider each company as a combination of the family involvement in three dimensions of the business: ownership, management and governance structure.Design/methodology/approachUsing the partial least squares technique allows us to address the heterogeneity of family firms through an integral concept of family involvement in business that jointly considers the level of family participation in the ownership, management and governance structure of each firm.FindingsOur results demonstrate that the level of family involvement in a family firm, considering the heterogeneity existing within the family business group, directly influences its level of indebtedness. In addition, we find that family involvement in ownership and governance structures individually considered are positively related to the level of indebtedness of the family business.Originality/valueOur findings prove that some indebtedness patterns, which previous literature has described as common to all Spanish family businesses, may actually be valid only for specific family firms with a particular level of family involvement. In addition, the way of measuring family business heterogeneity through our integral concept of family involvement can be replicated by other authors because of the manageability of the items, thus contributing to an increased understanding of the effects of family involvement in firms' development.

Family ownership and R&D investment: the moderating role of banks and private equity

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1675-1694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cirillo ◽  
Mario Ossorio ◽  
Luca Pennacchio
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Private Equity ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Family Ownership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
D Investment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to innovation and family business literature by establishing whether institutional involvement of private equity (PE) and banks in family firms moderates the relationship between family ownership and research and development (R&D) investment. Design/methodology/approach This paper used the socio-emotional wealth lens to carry out an econometric analysis on a large sample of Italian non-listed family firms. Using the sample selection model meant it was possible to account for potential selection bias arising from firms’ discretionary disclosure of R&D expenditure. Findings Family involvement in ownership reduced firms’ R&D intensity. When PE investors also held shares, the negative relationship was diverted. Bank involvement, however, did not have a significant effect on the relationship. Research limitations/implications This paper enriches the innovation management literature by increasing the understanding of the determinants of R&D investments in family firms. The results support the view that non-financial priorities in family firms are contingent upon non-family shareholders. This enriches the debate about the heterogeneity of family businesses and is consistent with the socio-emotional wealth framework, which has shown that risk preferences may vary if desired and actual performances are different. This may be a fruitful area for future research. Originality/value Contradicting the assumption that institutional owners all share the same perspective, this study is the first to assess the impact of different institutional shareholders on R&D intensity of private family firms.

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