All in the Family? An Exploratory Study of Family Member Advisors and Firm Performance. (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Naldi, Lucia; Chirico, Francesco; Kellermanns, Franz W.; Campopiano, Giovanna
• Is Part Of: Family business review. Volume 28:Number 3(2015)
• Page Start: 227
• Page End: 242
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: family member advisors -- generation in control -- performance -- family business; Family-owned business enterprises -- United States -- Periodicals; Home labor -- United States -- Periodicals; Small business -- United States -- Periodicals; New business enterprises -- United States -- Periodicals; 658.045
• DOI: 10.1177/0894486515581951
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0894-4865

Abstract

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.