The Impact of Customer Orientation and Family Decision-Making Style on Family Business Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of certain characteristics of family business decision-making processes (customer orientation and open and negotiating family decision-making styles) to business and family goal achievement as mediated by emotions (family supportiveness). We undertook this study to better understand why certain family businesses make consistently better decisions than others, leading them to earn more money and have family members who are happier in their home lives. Decision theory undergirded the study development. The sample consisted of 277 family business owners, and the data are from the National Family Business Panel data set. Our results showed that if the business owners focused on customer satisfaction and product quality when making decisions, they tended to make more money and tended to be happier at home. If families made business decisions in open and negotiating ways, their members were happier about their decisions because they felt supported by the other family members. Furthermore, family members who felt good about the support they got from their family members in their business decision-making were also happier in their home lives in general.

Mapping women's involvement in family firms: A review based on bibliographic coupling analysis

“…Woods et al. (2019*) assert that family members who feel supported by family in their business decision‐making are happier in their home lives in general, while Block et al. (2015*) argue that family employees have higher levels of job satisfaction, even when their wages are lower than those of other employees.…”

Psychological Antecedents of Decision Comprehensiveness and Their Relationship to Decision Quality and Performance in Family Firms: An Upper Echelons Perspective

“…Notably, decision making is one of the most heterogeneous aspects of family businesses (Chrisman et al, 2005; Penney et al, 2019; Woods et al, 2019). Decision makers vary in their strategic decision comprehensiveness, or the extent to which firm leaders seek out and process information from the environment in order to make informed decisions (Reina et al, 2017).…”

How do women entrepreneurs influence the strategic orientation of family businesses? A typology of Swedish decision-making in Småland community

“…In this study, women entrepreneurs highlighted the importance of Strategic orientation of family businesses decision-making involving employees at all levels and nonfamily members at the senior management level. The latter corresponds to decision-making without hierarchy (Iannello, 1992), where all family members and senior management teams unanimously agree through consensus and negotiation, which increases the family firm's performance (Woods et al, 2019). However, the women entrepreneurs I interviewed perceived decision-making through consensus or semistructured decision-making mode largely as nonbeneficial for overall firm performance.…”