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Based on the resource orchestration perspective, this paper aims to examine whether family firms are more efficient in their collaboration for innovation process than non-family firms, considering different types of collaboration for innovation depending on the kind of partner.

This study empirically develops and tests the hypotheses based on a panel data sample of 14,937 firm-year observations from 1,867 Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2007–2014, performing a Propensity Score Matching (Propensity score matching)-based analysis.

Results reveal that family firms outperform non-family firms, despite less collaboration and innovation inputs, thereby extending the ongoing debate surrounding the innovation efficiency of family firms. Family firms obtained better results through vertical collaborations for innovation, both in terms of product and process innovations. For horizontal collaborations, family firms only outperform their non-family counterparts in process innovation. When collaborating with universities and other research centers, there are no significant differences in the innovation outcomes between the two groups.

Recent literature points out that more research is needed to know when, how and under what circumstances family firms show superior innovative efficiency. This work empirically proves that family firms outperform non-family firms in collaboration for innovation. However, not all collaboration partners help family firms to reach this superior innovative efficiency. Family firms obtained better results just through vertical and horizontal collaborations.

The purpose of this paper is to study the internationalization of family firms, exploring specifically if the transition from family control to non-family control (losing family managerial influence) affects a firm’s export activity.

Based on panel data for Spanish firms from 2006 to 2012, a random effect tobit and probit regression and a propensity score matching were run on a sample of 225 firms moving from family to non-family control (switchers) matched with 4,213 firms remaining under family control (non-switchers).

Although from a static viewpoint family controlled firms export less than their non-family counterparts, from a dynamic perspective family firms remaining under family control (non-switchers) are associated with a fall in export activity in comparison with family firms transitioning to non-family control (switchers). Both findings are related back to the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective.

The findings of this study shed light on the trade-offs that family firms experience in order to balance their desire to increase their internationalization (and the risk associated with it) and their wish to maintain SEW.

The findings should encourage family owners and managers to take long-term strategic decisions leading to internationalization which, although risky, will prevent subsequent loss of SEW in terms of family control.

This work provides evidence concerning family firms’ willingness to undertake risky activities, such as internationalization, considering the threats to their wealth.

The purpose of this study is to examine how family governance and technological capabilities influence the conversion of new knowledge obtained from exports into various innovation outputs, a phenomenon called “learning-by-exporting (LBE).”

To properly examine the causal links proposed in the study, first, the control for endogeneity. Second, a propensity-score matching longitudinal analysis is conducted, a particularly robust empirical method that enhances reliability in non-experimental data, over an average sample of 663 manufacturing companies for the period 2007 to 2014.

Family firms’ innovation strategies and abilities render them more likely to convert the new knowledge from exporting into product innovation and more efficient in this endeavor than non-family firms. This diverts family firms’ typically limited resources from process innovation, and they have a smaller LBE effect than non-family firms in terms of process innovation.

The study contributes to the internationalization literature by producing a more nuanced view of the learning-by-exporting effect which considers the type of innovation outcomes developed following export activity. It also helps to identify some of the firm-specific factors that shape the relationship between exports and innovation, by empirically examining for the first time the role of family governance in innovation capabilities and decisions.