No abstract

Relational governance, Group dynamics, Social capital, Enterprising family, Financial performance, L2, L25, L26, L29,

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and examine extant knowledge on corporate governance structures (CGS) and performance relation within family firm and set the agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach The study analyses the content of 159 empirical articles retrieved mainly from Google Scholar and published between 2000 and 2016 in 61 highly ranked journals across different disciplines. Findings The review reveals fixation on quantitative approach and its associated techniques in examining CGS and performance nexus. The results from the review demonstrate heterogeneous relation between measures of CGS and performance. Suggestions for further studies include: measurement of non-economic performance of the family firm and incorporation of moderators and mediators from the organizations’ environment through the adoption of multilevel research. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this review include: first, issues relating to key/search terms and journals used for the study; this may not be exhaustive and hence likely to lead to omission of key publications. Second, scholarly attention in terms of empirical studies on family governance, including family council, family assembly and family constitution, has been scarce (Suess, 2014; Klein, 2008; Witt, 2008); hence family governance is outside the scope of this review. In sum, future work may explore other keywords and publications not used in this review and consider review of family governance. Originality/value The authors offer a multidisciplinary conceptual framework that synthesizes and integrates the existing literature on CGS across different disciplines within family firms. This provides researchers across different disciplines a common platform for interdisciplinary discourse.

This study examines the relationship between bonding and bridging ownership social capital (OSC) for a random sample of 679 privately held small and medium-sized firms. Results confirm the positive effects of bonding OSC (quality of relationships and shared vision) on bridging OSC (network mobilization) as well as two- and three-way moderator effects of family firm identity and ownership–management overlap. Moderator effects are more robust, however, for the shared vision indicator of bonding OSC. Implications for social capital theory, social and organizational identity theory, and family firm research and practice are discussed.

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship of ownership behaviors with both firm financial performance and family assets in the context of family owned businesses.Design/methodology/approachThe research framework allows for a comparison of predictions drawn from social psychological, economic, and management literature. The hypotheses are tested using ordinary least squares hierarchical regression analyses conducted on a nonrandom sample of medium and large family businesses.FindingsThe empirical results identify four potential categories of responsible ownership behaviors: professionalism, active governance, owner as resource, and basic duties. Professionalism (i.e. acting in accordance with expectations and agreements among owners and in relation to the firm) is the only behavior positively associated with financial performance. The effect of active governance (i.e. the monitoring of management) on financial performance is moderated by business size – this behavior has a negative effect on the dependent variable for all but the largest firms in the sample.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the current research and directions for further research include issues related to sampling, other possible variables to be explored, and alternative validations of the responsible ownership concept.Practical implicationsThis study has direct practical implications for owners' actions in relation to one another and with other actors in the firm.Originality/valueThis study contributes to existing research on governance by developing a better understanding of the role of owners and their influence on the firm.