Family Business Review

This paper examines the influence of family management and firm age on a firm’s decisions on product versus international diversification. Based on socioemotional wealth literature and the temporal dimension of family influence, we hypothesize that family management prefers product diversification and that the positive impact of family management becomes stronger in older firms. Analyzing data from 422 manufacturing firms in the S&P 1,500, we find strong empirical support. Our findings remain robust to endogeneity concerns. This study contributes to the literature by offering new insights into how socioemotional wealth preservation and temporal factors jointly shape diversification strategies in publicly traded firms.

Prior research suggests that the territory in which firms operate shapes the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) orientation of family firms. Yet, we know little about how the owning families’ territorial bonds relate to CSR. Drawing on survey data from 316 Italian family firms, we examine the association between owning families’ emotional ties to place (place attachment) and CSR orientation, and whether this association operates indirectly through the firm’s economic and social ties to its local context (local embeddedness). Results indicate a positive relationship between place attachment and CSR, partially mediated by local embeddedness, thus advancing a place-based perspective on CSR in family firms.

Single-family offices are increasingly important actors in impact investing, yet little is known about how they translate impact intentions into desired outcomes after investing. Drawing on the socioemotional wealth perspective, we conduct an abductive qualitative study based on a dual perspective of nine single-family offices and eight portfolio companies. We identify four impact intention translation strategies, three barriers, and two enabling mechanisms. Building on these findings, we develop a typology of four impact translation logics—hands-on controllers, embedded stewards, relational investors, and formalized partners—that explains heterogeneity in how family-based priorities and intentions shape impact translation.

Ever since scholars recognized that family firms are heterogeneous, many studies have attempted to compare different types of family firms without ensuring that the source of heterogeneity is unique to family firms. When the source of heterogeneity among family firms resembles the source of heterogeneity among nonfamily firms, the problem of counterfactual indeterminacy bias can lead to misleading or irrelevant findings that fail to distinguish the effects of family influence from factors that affect all firms. We delineate common forms of this bias and offer recommendations to prevent it in research on family firm behavior and performance.

Despite the substantial degree of heterogeneity within family firms, little is known about how their heterogeneity affects firm behavior and the implication for the shareholder–debtholder agency problem. Our study contributes to the literature by examining whether family firms with a higher level of control-ownership divergence would disclose less information and whether Big 4 auditors play a moderating role in mitigating the negative impact of control-ownership divergence on disclosure quality resulting in improved credit ratings. Using data from the emerging economy of Taiwan, we provide support for our three hypotheses. Our contributions will interest family firm owners, researchers, auditors, and policymakers.

This article develops a two-part theoretical framework synthesizing the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective with image theory to explain the ways in which family decision makers screen and potentially adopt habitual new venture opportunities. The model theorizes that opportunities are initially screened according to their ability to preserve SEW and fit with the family’s value images and subsequently explains how SEW willingness interacts with the family entrepreneur’s trajectory and strategic images to predict whether the venture will be pursued as a serial or portfolio opportunity. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are also discussed.