This article investigates the effects of separation of ownership and control because of vote differentiation on listed family firms’ investment performance. The authors study the question of whether family-controlled firms have better investment performance than nonfamily firms and whether this investment performance is negatively affected by a separation of ownership and control because of vote differentiation. Marginal q is used as a performance measure. The empirical analysis shows that family control has a positive impact on investment performance when ownership and control are aligned, whereas separation of ownership and control in terms of vote-differentiated shares reduce investment performance.

Drawing on stewardship theory and arguments in relation to social and reputational capital, this study investigates how family involvement affects engagement in firm philanthropy in small- and medium-sized family firms. Specifically, we argue that family involvement in ownership positively influences firm philanthropy while its interaction with family involvement in management produces a negative effect. Based on a sample of 130 Italian family firms, our findings offer important implications for theory and practice and pave the way for future research in the field of philanthropy in the family firm context.

The authors conduct a simulation study using system dynamics methods to interpret how and when paternalism affects dynamic capabilities (DCs) and by association value creation in family firms. Their simulation experiments suggest that the effect of paternalism on DCs and value creation varies over time. Initially, increasing levels of family social capital and low levels of paternalism are associated with high rates of DCs and value creation accumulation (asset). Later, higher levels of paternalism produce their pressure to decrease DCs, value creation, and family social capital accumulation rates (liability)

The speed of change in competitive environments has prompted firms to develop processes directed at enabling organizational adaptation. This is captured by the concept of dynamic capabilities. We focus on a particular form of business organization, that is, the family firm. Specifically, we argue that knowledge integration—a dynamic capability through which family members' specialized knowledge is recombined—guides the evolution of capabilities. We present a general framework illustrating factors that affect knowledge integration in family firms. We conclude that only those family firms that are able to effectively integrate individual family members' specialized knowledge will be successful in dynamic markets by changing their capabilities over time.

We extend prior work on proactiveness in family firms by examining the relationship between firm age and proactiveness. Specifically, we propose an S-shaped effect of aging of family firms on proactiveness. Additionally, we provide a contingency perspective by considering the moderating role of the dispersion of managerial control among family members. Using a sample of Swiss family firms, we find that proactiveness first declines, then increases, and finally decreases again as the family firm ages, and that this relationship is steeper when the managerial control is dispersed among multiple family members.

A growing body of research is concerned with how family governance influences innovation. Yet, the organizational issues that family governance engenders for innovation processes have been largely overlooked. In a study of six family SMEs, we investigate the design decisions that fit family and business logics to create high-performing new product development programs. Our results reveal three design principles concerning teams, leadership, and incentives that diverge from customary approaches of organizing for new product development, adding important dimensions to the determinants of successful new product development in family SMEs.

This article sheds light on the valuation of family firms when compared with nonfamily firms as acquisition targets. The authors argue that although the majority of theoretical and empirical research explicitly recognizes the prevalence and superior performance of family firms around the world, acquiring companies tend to regard family firms as unprofessional and inefficient organizations, thus negatively affecting their valuation when compared with nonfamily firm targets. Overall, the authors’ empirical analysis, based on a matched-pairs methodology and use of multiples, shows that acquiring companies favor the stagnation perspective rather than the stewardship perspective and thus pay less (i.e., acquire at a discount) for a family firm target than for a nonfamily firm target.

Our purpose is to challenge the dominant meaning of professional management in family business research and to suggest an extended understanding of the concept. Based on a review of selected literature on professional management and with insights from cultural theory and symbolic interactionism, we draw on interpretive case research to argue that professional family business management rests on two competencies, formal and cultural, of which only the former is explicitly recognized in current family business literature. We elaborate on the meanings and implications of cultural competence and argue that without it a CEO of a family business is likely to work less effectively, no matter how good the formal qualifications and irrespective of family membership.

This paper takes an interest in the past, as depicted by family business owners, and how it is reflected in the governance of the firm. The purpose of this paper is to explore how family business owners express and perceive their family business story and the implications for the strategy formation of the firm. Through the storytelling from 20 cases, we conclude that they embrace their past through different degrees of adoption and their promotion or prevention focus. We construct four typologies: strategy formation through reinforcement, renewal, remembrance and rhetoric. The implications of storytelling and these typologies are discussed.

This article explores the processes through which family-controlled businesses (FCBs) access and recombine resources to match the evolving needs of their business activities.We do so by applying the conceptual lens offered by social capital to the comparative study of four FCBs active in traditional competitive arenas. Our data reveal that these firms’ ability to create financial value over generations does not result from possession of some unique resource, nor from higher-level combinative capabilities; rather, these FCBs have systematically created value through their ability to renew and to reshape their social interactions within and outside the controlling family.

This exploratory study investigates the relationship between family members serving in an advising capacity and family firm performance. Integrating the stewardship and agency perspectives, we predict an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of family advisors and family firm performance. We argue that the generation in control moderates this relationship such that family member advisors have a positive relationship with performance in first-generation family firms and an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance in later-generation family firms. Our empirical analysis on a sample of 128 Swedish family firms confirms our hypotheses. In the concluding section, we discuss results, contributions, and future research directions.

This study aims to determine how family embeddedness conditions combine with the goals and attributes of individuals with a family business background to engender to two patterns of entrepreneurship: succession in the family business and foundation of a new venture. Our empirical study is conducted using 169 cases of entrepreneurs operating in Italy. Inductively building on the configurations derived from the analysis, we suggest a series of theoretical propositions focusing on family embeddedness, individual attributes, and entrepreneurial paths of next-generation family business members.

Whereas existing research on the longevity of family firms has focused on the survival of firms, this article investigates transgenerational entrepreneurship of families. By building on the transgenerational entrepreneurship research framework, the authors argue that by shifting from firm to family level of analysis, one gains a deeper understanding of family firms’ ability to create value across generations. The authors find evidence for their argument in that such a level shift reveals extended entrepreneurial activity, which is missed when focusing exclusively on the firm level. The study introduces and empirically explores the construct of family entrepreneurial orientation, which may serve as an antecedent to transgenerational value creation by families.