Structural aspects of corporate governance and family firm performance: a systematic review

Abstract

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.

Export behavior and corporate governance

“…include absolutely all studies published on these topics, but rather to demonstrate the richness of this research field and to identify the main contradictions in empirical results. Scholars have studied corporate governance from different theoretical perspectives (for an overview, see, for instance, Aguilera et al, 2019;Aluchna, 2016;Azila-Gbettor et al, 2018;Ducassy and Prevot, 2010;Strange et al, 2009;; also, see Table I). For example, according to the resource-based view (RBV), a firm's performance (sustained competitive advantage) depends on its resources (Barney, 1991) including owners' and managers' know-how from education and experience, but also other assets like their network relationships and access to financing (Westhead et al, 2001).…”

Management accounting research in family businesses: a review of the status quo and future agenda

“…Amid such burgeoning empirical work, an array of literature reviews confined to different facets of family businesses and accounting also exists which encapsulates corporate governance structures and firm performance (Azila-Gbettor et al, 2018), finance managers (Hiebl, 2017), private equity (Schickinger et al, 2018) and mergers and acquisitions (Worek, 2017). Absent from this body of knowledge is a systematic review of prior literature which explores the interplay of management accounting and family businesses.…”

Family affairs – Corporate governance involvement of families and stock market returns

“…Differences in the performance of family firms and non-family firms, as well as the means of family influence on firm performance, are the prominent points of a year-long discussion in the literature (Mazzi, 2011;O'Boyle et al, 2012;Wagner et al, 2015;Taras et al, 2018;Azila-Gbettor et al, 2018). Various studies have explored differences in the market anticipation and performance of firms held by families/founders/CEOs and non-family firms.…”