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Based on the socioemotional wealth and social capital perspectives, this study offers insights into the implications of managerial ties for corporate entrepreneurship (CE) by focusing on business and political ties in the context of emerging markets. Moreover, the mediating effects of cooperation among firms on the relationship between business (or political) ties and CE are examined, and the moderated mediation effects of family governance on the above mediating relationships are then further examined. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey and the Taiwan Economic Journal database. All hypotheses were examined by employing regression analysis and Hayes's PROCESS macro model on a dataset of 173 Taiwanese public companies. The findings show that (1) business and political ties increase CE; (2) cooperation among firms positively mediates the influences of business and political ties on CE; (3) family governance enhances the positive indirect effect of business ties on CE via cooperation; however, the adverse influence of firms' political ties on their cooperation with others in family governance, which subsequently reduces CE. Solidarity within social networks promotes conspiracies and unethical behaviour. These findings support our predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how inter-firm cooperation and firm age moderate the relationship between family ownership and productivity. Design/methodology/approach: We first estimate the total factor productivity (TFP) of a large sample of Italian firms observed over the period 2010–2018 and then apply a Poisson random effects model. Findings: TFP is, on average, higher for non-family firms (non-FFs) than for FF. Furthermore, inter-organizational cooperation and firm age mitigate the negative effect of family ownership. In detail, it is found that belonging to a network acts as a moderator in different ways according to firm age. Indeed, young FFs underperform non-FF peers, although the TFP gap decreases with age. In contrast, the benefits of a formal network are high for older FFs, suggesting that an age-related learning process is at work. Practical implications: The study provides evidence that FFs can outperform non-FFs when they move away from Socio-Emotional Wealth-centered reference points and exploit knowledge flows arising from high levels of social capital. In the case of mature FFs, networking is a driver of TFP, allowing them to acquire external resources. Since FFs often do not have sufficient in-house knowledge and resources, they must be aware of the value of business cooperation. While preserving the familiar identity of small companies, networks grant FFs the competitive and scale advantages of being large. Originality/value: Despite the wide but ambiguous body of research on the performance gap between FFs and non-FFs, little is known about the role of FFs' heterogeneity. This study has proven successful in detecting age as a factor in heterogeneity, specifically to explain the network effect on the link between ownership and TFP. Based on a representative sample, the study provides a solid framework for FFs, policymakers and academic research on family-owned companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of family ownership on corporate misconduct and its subsequent consequences. We argue that the reduced Type I agency conflicts (conflicts between managers and shareholders) in family firms may create an alignment effect, thereby curbing managerial misbehaviour. In contrast, the more severe Type II agency issues (conflicts between family owners and other shareholders) may induce an entrenchment effect, potentially fostering misconduct in these firms. Whether and how family ownership affects firm misconduct remains an empirical question. Through a research design that analyzes both types of agency conflict across various combinations of ownership and management control, our study of S&P 500 firms in the US suggests that family ownership tends to restrain firm misconduct. Specifically, family firms with externally hired CEOs effectively mitigate Type I agency problems and deter misconduct. Further analyses of misconduct consequences show that family ownership mitigates the negative effect of misconduct on firms' credit ratings, particularly in firms with outside‐hired CEOs. Moreover, family firms encounter less adverse market reactions in response to disclosures of misconduct penalties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the research gap in parent-child intergenerational succession, this study adopts a stakeholder perspective and utilizes data from listed family firms in China spanning from 2010 to 2021 to explore the influence of parent-child cogovernance on corporate ESG performance. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between parent-child cogovernance and corporate ESG performance, with this effect becoming more pronounced as parent-child cogovernance deepens. Furthermore, our analysis identifies "paternalistic care" and "reducing agency costs" as crucial mechanisms through which parent-child cogovernance enhances ESG performance. Importantly, the impact of parent-child cogovernance is particularly notable in firms characterized by lower first-generation control, limited political connections, and weaker external governance. The robustness of our results is confirmed through various methodological approaches including two-stage least squares estimation (2SLS), Heckman two-stage estimation, propensity score matching (PSM), and staggered difference-in-difference (DID) analysis. This study contributes significantly to the literature on intergenerational succession and corporate ESG performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the digital technologies diffusion, low-medium technology firms have been pushed to advance their dynamic capabilities. Through an exploratory multiple-case study, we analyze four Thai family firms assessing their preparedness in pursuing a digital transformation journey and their ability to improve dynamic capabilities. The study shows that LMT firms are in the early stage of their digital transformation, which is led by being part of a global value chain, serving exigent consumers, and imitating startups. Thai firms revitalize business models, while optimizing operations. They build dynamic capabilities through the help of third-party providers prioritizing social media marketing and digital marketing, with a general awareness of environmental, societal, and governance trends. Overall, family firms are still reluctant to pursue strategic agility and rapid prototyping. Thus, in the absence of an innovation ecosystem supporting family firms, it is harder to augment their absorptive capacity and redesign the internal structure of the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic literature review synthesizes and maps existing research on auditing in family firms across multiple areas of study. The review includes 71 systematically selected academic articles published through to 2023. Our findings suggest that many audit-related issues, such as audit fees, audit quality, and auditor choice, differ significantly among family and nonfamily firms. Our review suggests that the positioning of the issues across different disciplines adds complexity and, to some extent, hinders the development of the field. This complexity, resulting from the intermixing of multiple concepts from different disciplines, pushes the majority of the reviewed articles toward theoretical singularity rather than a leap forward in terms of empirical relevance or theoretical plurality. By developing a field map that identifies gaps in current knowledge, our review not only suggests improvements to the status quo, but provides future research directions inspired by recent developments in family business and auditing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the key topic of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) survival during an economic downturn by focusing on the role of family governance. We argue that family SMEs typically show higher levels of organizational inertia that may particularly harm their performance during an environmental jolt, while other idiosyncrasies, including greater survivability capital and owners' transgenerational sustainability intentions, enhance their odds of survival. However, we also contend that family firms are a heterogeneous group, and draw attention to the level of ownership concentration and collaborative intensity as factors likely to enhance these firms' survival. Conversely, we posit that family businesses with lower ownership concentration will benefit more from high collaborative intensity, thus suggesting the need to examine the joint survival effects of these two factors. We performed Cox survival analyses on a sample of 259 SMEs tracked from 2005 to 2019. The results offer important implications for scholars, managers, and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family governance as a research field has recently attracted scholarly attention. The article aims to contribute to family business literature by consolidating the extant research on family governance. Our systematic literature review comprises 52 articles on family governance in 24 peer-reviewed journals between 1993 and 2023. The findings reveal family complexity as one of the preeminent reasons to adopt family governance structures. The study further identifies that the adoption of family governance structures by family businesses results in family and business-related transformation and leads to various economic and non-economic benefits. Finally, we suggest potential avenues for conducting future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding chief executive officers (CEOs) is important because of their vast influence on the strategies and performance of organizations. With the growth of family business research, new insights about family firm CEOs have emerged. However, knowledge about family firm CEOs is dispersed across an array of disciplines that take different perspectives. These differences have led to an inconsistent understanding of family firm CEOs, particularly since they can be family or nonfamily members with varying levels of willingness, ability, and capability to select and implement distinctive strategies. To better understand CEOs in family firms, we reviewed 175 articles published between 1984 and 2021 using upper echelons theory to capture the relationships among CEO characteristics, strategic choices, and firm performance. Our integrative review synthesizes findings from entrepreneurship, management, finance, economics, and other disciplines to provide insights and future research directions on CEO characteristics, strategic choices, and firm performance in family firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the accounting for defined benefit pension plans in U.S. family firms. Relying on agency theory and the literature on defined benefit pension plans, we test whether the allocation of pension plan assets, the expected rate of return on pension plan assets and the contributions to defined benefit pension plans in family firms are significantly different from those in non‐family firms. Relying on a sample of U.S. firms over the period 2004–2018, we first document that family firms take more risk when allocating their pension plan assets relative to non‐family firms where they allocate a larger (smaller) percentage of pension plan assets in equity (debt) securities. We also show that family firms are more aggressive in setting the expected rate of return on pension plan assets than non‐family firms. However, family firms' contributions to defined benefit pension plans are comparable to those of non‐family firms. Our findings hold after controlling for the endogeneity in family firms. These findings are important since they provide first hand empirical evidence on the accounting for defined benefit pension plans in family firms. They further shed light over pension plans that serve as a key tool to attract and retain executive talents and make up a significant portion of firms balance' sheets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]