Nina Schweiger, Kurt Matzler, Julia Hautz, Alfredo de Massis
{"title":"Family businesses and strategic change: the role of family ownership","authors":"Nina Schweiger, Kurt Matzler, Julia Hautz, Alfredo de Massis","doi":"10.1007/s11846-023-00703-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this study, we analyze how the performance-aspiration gap influences strategic change in family firms, providing evidence of the moderating role of family ownership in this relationship. According to socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, family owners pursue non-financial as well as financial goals, are more risk-averse due to their personal wealth being tied to the firm, and seek to maintain control of the firm to preserve and build their SEW—all characteristics that influence their strategic behavior. We therefore suggest that strategic decisions in family-owned firms are less influenced by purely economic performance, and that such firms tend to persevere more strongly in their strategic direction. We test our hypotheses on a sample of publicly listed European firms between 2007 and 2016. Our findings confirm that the success of firms inhibits strategic change, and that family ownership moderates this relationship by making the overall effect smaller, indicating greater resistance to change despite economic pitfalls.","PeriodicalId":20992,"journal":{"name":"Review of Managerial Science","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":7.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Review of Managerial Science","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-023-00703-3","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract In this study, we analyze how the performance-aspiration gap influences strategic change in family firms, providing evidence of the moderating role of family ownership in this relationship. According to socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, family owners pursue non-financial as well as financial goals, are more risk-averse due to their personal wealth being tied to the firm, and seek to maintain control of the firm to preserve and build their SEW—all characteristics that influence their strategic behavior. We therefore suggest that strategic decisions in family-owned firms are less influenced by purely economic performance, and that such firms tend to persevere more strongly in their strategic direction. We test our hypotheses on a sample of publicly listed European firms between 2007 and 2016. Our findings confirm that the success of firms inhibits strategic change, and that family ownership moderates this relationship by making the overall effect smaller, indicating greater resistance to change despite economic pitfalls.
期刊介绍:
Review of Managerial Science (RMS) provides a forum for innovative research from all scientific areas of business administration. The journal publishes original research of high quality and is open to various methodological approaches (analytical modeling, empirical research, experimental work, methodological reasoning etc.). The scope of RMS encompasses – but is not limited to – accounting, auditing, banking, business strategy, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, financial structure and capital markets, health economics, human resources management, information systems, innovation management, insurance, marketing, organization, production and logistics, risk management and taxation. RMS also encourages the submission of papers combining ideas and/or approaches from different areas in an innovative way. Review papers presenting the state of the art of a research area and pointing out new directions for further research are also welcome. The scientific standards of RMS are guaranteed by a rigorous, double-blind peer review process with ad hoc referees and the journal´s internationally composed editorial board.