Despite significant academic and managerial interest in big data, there is a dearth of research on how big data impacts the long‐term firm performance. Reasons for this gap include a lack of objective indices to measure big data availability and its impact, and the tendency of studies to ignore the costs associated with collecting and analyzing big data, assuming that big data automatically delivers benefits to firms. Focusing on how firms create and capture value from big data about customers, we use the resource‐based view and three dimensions of big data (i.e., volume, variety, and veracity) to understand when the benefits outweigh the costs. Relying on the number of downloads of mobile device applications, we find that volume of big data has a negative effect on firm performance. This result suggests that the “bigness” of big data alone does not ensure value creation for a firm, and could even constitute a “dark side” of big data. Because big data variety—measured as the number of types of information taken per each application—moderates the negative effects of big data volume, simultaneous high values of volume and variety allow firms to create value that positively affects their performance. In addition, high levels of veracity (i.e., a high percentage of employees devoted to big data analysis), are linked to firms benefiting from big data via value capture. These findings shed light on the circumstances in which big data can be beneficial for firms, contributing to a better theoretical understanding of the opportunities and challenges and providing useful indications to managers.

The present paper investigates the relationship between the involvement of family firms in R&D collaborations aimed at developing green solutions and the value of resulting innovations. To dig into this relationship, the moderating effects of two proximity dimensions (i.e., geographical distance and technological relatedness) are also assessed. Analyses are based on a sample of 156 joint patents classified into the “Alternative energy production” field, as defined by the International Patent Classification Green Inventory and successfully filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the period 1997–2010 by publicly listed companies. According to our conjectures, results reveal a positive relationship between the involvement of family firms and green innovation value. Moreover, our findings show that this relationship is hindered when partners are geographically distant or technologically proximate. Eventually, we contribute to the literature on green innovation by unveiling under which conditions inter‐firm R&D collaborations lead to more valuable innovations.

This paper reviews and organizes the theoretical and empirical research on foreign direct investment (FDI) knowledge spillovers from the international business perspective. In doing so, it develops a framework for the analysis of this phenomenon. The suggested FDI knowledge spillover framework integrates both the macro-level (country, industry, institutions) and micro-level (multinational firm, headquarters, subsidiary, local firms) antecedents of spillovers with their consequences, and proposes to analyse spillovers along three main attributes that characterize their occurrence, i.e. their magnitude, scope and speed

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Manuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: Although non-family managers (NFMs) can be expected to influence firm performance, this issue is largely under-investigated. In this study, we examine how diversity inside the non-family component of the top management team (non-family team, or NFT) influences family firm performance. More specifically, we investigate the performance effects of three specific sources of NFT diversity (NFT size; NFT tenure diversity; and NFT dominant functional diversity). Research Findings/Insights: The analysis of 584 survey responses by top managers representing 97 complete NFTs (and the related top management teams, TMTs) out of the top 500 family-controlled firms in the Italian furniture industry indicates that (1) NFT-dominant functional diversity improves firm performance; (2) a U-shaped relationship exists between NFT tenure diversity and family firm performance; (3) an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between NFT size and family firm performance. Additionally, we show that the relation between non-family manager characteristics and firm performance is moderated by family dominance in the entire TMT, that is, the proportion of family to non-family managers. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our results call for further exploration regarding the demographic characteristics of nonfamily managers and their effect on the performance of family firms. In this way, they have several implications for the family business literature, contributing to the growing debate on the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) perspective of family firms' behaviors. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of better contextualizing research on strategic leadership and strategic leaders. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Our study suggests that the choice of outsiders should take into account not only their "market value" and reputation, but also the attributes of other NFMs among the company's executives, providing guidance to family owners in their decisions about professionalization.