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The purpose of this paper is to offer new insights regarding an issue that has attracted the interest of multitude academics and practitioners in business management and family firm literature: technological innovation (TI). Specifically, this study brings new knowledge regarding both the impact of TI efficiency on firm growth and the moderating role of family involvement in management on such relationship.

The authors use a matched-pairs design and an ordinary least squares regression analysis to examine a sample of 152 Spanish manufacturing firms.

First, the authors show that firms obtaining higher TI efficiency are also those that achieve superior growth. Second, the authors reveal that as family involvement in management increases, the positive effect that TI efficiency exerts on firm growth is strengthened.

This study suggests that family managers should essentially consider various aspects such as tacit knowledge, social capital and long-standing collaborations with stakeholders to reinforce the relationship between TI efficiency and firm growth.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyses the effect of TI efficiency on firm growth, as well as, when and to what extent family involvement in management influences the TI efficiency–growth relationship. Thus, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the importance that family managers could have on firm growth deriving from TI efficiency.

There are currently two issues that generate growing interest among specialized scholars within the family business field: technological innovation (TI) and socioemotional wealth (SEW). While it is true that both topics are highly popular among researchers, the joint study of both perspectives is scarce. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the interrelationships between TI and SEW in the context of family firms.

This literature review systematically analyses the findings of 25 journal articles focusing on TI and SEW, published between 2012 and 2018.

The findings reveal an integrative approach, identifying different variables that relate TI and SEW. A conceptual framework is built in which these variables are incorporated into four categories (SEW, TI, moderating effects and performance). New lines of research emerge with the development of a conceptual model and the formulation of six propositions.

The conceptual framework can be useful as integrative summary of the factors that family business managers and directors should take into account to be successful in implementing innovative projects and strategies.

The study of TI from the SEW approach has emerged as a fruitful field of research in recent years, but the current knowledge of the role that SEW plays in family firms’ TI is still scarce. This paper contributes to the family business literature by offering a conceptual framework of the SEW–TI relationship and new research avenues that will provide a better comprehension for scholars and specialists for future investigations in the field.

Actualmente existen dos temas que generan un creciente interés entre los académicos especializados en el campo de estudio de la empresa familiar: la innovación tecnológica y la riqueza socioemocional. Si bien es cierto que ambos temas son muy populares entre los investigadores, el estudio conjunto de ambas perspectivas es escaso. Así, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las interrelaciones entre la innovación tecnológica (IT) y la riqueza socioemocional (SEW) en el contexto de las empresas familiares.

Esta revisión de la literatura analiza sistemáticamente los hallazgos de 25 artículos de revistas que se centran en la IT y el SEW, publicados entre 2012 y 2018.

Los hallazgos revelan un enfoque integrador, identificando diferentes variables que relacionan la IT y el SEW. Así pues, se construye un marco conceptual en el que estas variables son incorporadas en cuatro categorías (SEW, IT, efectos moderadores y rendimiento). Nuevas líneas de investigación surgen con el desarrollo de un modelo conceptual y la formulación de seis proposiciones.

El marco conceptual puede ser útil como resumen exhaustivo de los factores que los gerentes y directores de empresas familiares deben tener en cuenta para tener éxito en la implementación de proyectos y estrategias innovadoras.

El estudio de la IT desde el enfoque del SEW ha surgido como un campo de investigación fructífero en los últimos años, pero el conocimiento actual del rol que juega el SEW en la IT de las empresas familiares es todavía escaso. Este trabajo contribuye a la literatura de la empresa familiar ofreciendo un marco conceptual de la relación SEW-IT y nuevas vías de investigación que proporcionarán una mejor comprensión a académicos y especialistas para futuras investigaciones en este campo de estudio.

Innovación tecnológica, Riqueza socioemocional, Empresas familiares, Revisión de literature

Revisión general

Actualmente existem dois temas que geram um crescente interesse entre os acadêmicos especializados no campo de estudo da empresa familiar: inovação tecnológica e riqueza sócio-emocional. Conquanto é verdadeiro que ambos temas são muito populares entre os investigadores, o estudo conjunto de ambas perspectivas é escasso. Assim, o objectivo deste trabalho é analisar as inter-relações entre inovação tecnológica (IT) e riqueza socioemocional (SEW) no contexto das empresas familiares.

Esta revisão da literatura analisa sistematicamente os achados de 25 artigos de revistas que se centram na IT e o SEW, publicados entre 2012 e 2018.

Os achados revelam um enfoque integrador, identificando diferentes variáveis que relacionam a IT e o SEW. Constrói-se um marco conceptual no qual estas variáveis são incorporadas em quatro categorias (SEW, TI, efeitos moderadores e rendimento). Novas linhas de investigação surgem com o desenvolvimento de um modelo conceptual e a formulação de seis proposições.

O marco conceptual pode ser útil como resumo exhaustivo dos factores que os gerentes e diretores de empresas familiares devem ter em conta para ter sucesso na implementação de projectos e estratégias inovadoras.

O estudo da IT desde o enfoque do SEW tem surgido como um campo de investigação frutífero nos últimos anos, mas o conhecimento atual do papel que joga o SEW na IT das empresas familiares é ainda escasso. Este trabalho contribui à literatura da empresa familiar oferecendo um marco conceptual da relação SEW-TI e novas vias de investigação que proporcionarão um melhor entendimento a académicos e especialistas para futuras investigações neste campo de estudo.

Inovação tecnológica, Riqueza sócio-emocional, Empresas familiares, Revisão da literatura

Revisão geral

The relationship between risk and return has been widely analysed in the scope of listed companies. However the present literature leaves uncovered an important study area with regards to privately held firms. In order to cover this gap, this study analyses the risk-return trade-off in the context of private enterprises. Furthermore, the authors incorporate the contingent effect of being a family firm on the abovementioned relationship.

Using information from the SABI (Sistema de Análisis de Balances Ibéricos) database, a sample of 2,297 private manufacturing firms were analysed for the period of 2009–2016. So as to ascertain the proposed hypotheses, dynamic panel data methodology was applied. Specifically, the authors estimated the two-step general method of moments (GMM).

The obtained findings reveal that, according to prospect theory arguments, privately held firms adopt a conservative attitude toward risk when results are higher than a target level, while becoming risk seeking when results are lower than a target level. Moreover, the fact of being a family firm softens the risk-return relationship both when performance is above the target level and also when firms find themselves in the lowest performing case.

This article is, to the best of the authors' knowledge, one of the first studies dealing with the risk-return relationship in a privately held firm context. Moreover, the inclusion of being a family firm as a contingent factor in the abovementioned link is a complete novelty.

La relación riesgo-rentabilidad ha sido ampliamente analizada en el ámbito de las empresas cotizadas. Sin embargo, la literatura existente deja al descubierto una importante área de estudio en relación con las empresas no cotizadas. Para cubrir esta brecha, el presente estudio analiza el binomio riesgo-rentabilidad en el contexto de empresas privadas. Adicionalmente, incorporamos el efecto contingente de ser una empresa familiar sobre esta relación.

Utilizando información de la base de datos SABI (Sistema de Análisis de Balances Ibéricos) se analizó una muestra de 2.297 empresas manufactureras privadas para el período 2009–2016. Para comprobar las hipótesis propuestas se aplicó la metodología de datos de panel, específicamente, utilizamos el Método de los Momentos Generalizado (GMM).

Los resultados muestran que, de acuerdo con la Teoría Prospectiva, las empresas no cotizadas presentan una mayor aversión al riesgo cuando su nivel de rentabilidad es superior al valor de referencia establecido, mientras que presentan una mayor propensión al riesgo cuando su rentabilidad es inferior al valor de referencia. Además, el hecho de ser una empresa familiar suaviza la relación riesgo-rentabilidad en ambos escenarios.

Este es uno de los primeros estudios en abordar la relación riesgo-rentabilidad en el contexto de empresas no cotizadas. Además, la inclusión de ser una empresa familiar como factor contingente es completamente novedosa.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between heterogeneous collaborative networks and firm performance, using the resource-based view (RBV) and its extension through the knowledge-based view (KBV) as theoretical lens. Moreover, the authors examine family management and intellectual property rights (IPRs) as contingent factors that enhance the effectiveness of heterogeneous collaborative networks in achieving superior firm performance.

The hypotheses are developed and checked by using a panel data sample of 10,985 firm-year observations from 1,766 Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2007–2016.

The results indicate that heterogeneous collaborative networks positively influence firm performance. Furthermore, the positive impact of these innovation networks on firm performance is reinforced by high levels of family management, and such effect is even stronger when there exists high levels of IPRs.

This research is the first, to our knowledge, to provide important new insights into the manner in which the effect of both family management and IPRs have the potential to amplify the performance gains attained from heterogenous collaborative networks.

This paper aims to examine the influence of family involvement in TMTs on product innovation efficiency and the contingent role of technological collaborations, combining insights from the resource-based view and the behavioral agency model.

This study empirically develops and tests the hypotheses using a longitudinal sample of 3,852 firm-year observations from Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2006–2016.

The results reveal that family involvement in TMTs positively influences product innovation efficiency. The results also show that such positive effect is weakened as technological collaborations increase, and varies according to the partner type with whom the cooperation agreement is established. Specifically, the findings indicate that collaboration with suppliers appear to be the least detrimental for product innovation efficiency in family firms, followed by collaborations with customers and research organizations.

Family firms should consider appointing family members to their TMT to improve product innovation efficiency. Moreover, to enhance the effect of family management on product innovation efficiency, family managers should carefully select their technological partners.

This study is one of the first studies to theoretically explain and empirically demonstrate that family involvement in TMTs is a critical antecedent of product innovation efficiency and that technological collaborations moderate such link. Moreover, this study goes further in revealing that distinct types of partners have a differential moderating influence on the family involvement in TMTs-product innovation efficiency relationship. The results can be used to help managers and practitioners to boost innovation performance as well as to assist policymakers to design firm-level innovation policies to improve family firms' competitiveness.

This study investigates the impact of the CEO's financial literacy on family SMEs' growth, as well as the moderating role of the generational stage on this relationship.

The study is based on survey data of Spanish private family firms and utilizes a second source of data, the SABI database by Bureau Van Dijk. The authors run ordinary least squares regressions and use both the base and the partition approaches to test the hypotheses.

The analysis reveals a positive association between the CEO's financial literacy and firm growth. However, this relationship is not uniform across generations. The CEO's financial literacy-firm growth relationship becomes weaker for first- and third or subsequent-generation family firms while becoming stronger for second-generation family firms.

This study adds the financial literacy of the CEO as a novel individual-level determinant of family firm growth. It also shows that CEOs do not always use their financial literacy to its full potential to foster growth. More specifically, the extent to which financial literacy leads to firm growth is found to be conditional on the generational stage of the family SME. The obtained findings are valuable for family SMEs intending to hire a new CEO, encouraging the financial literacy of the current CEO and educating the next generation of family members.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of the nature of ownership and board characteristics on the investment choices in joint ventures (JVs) from the dimensional point of view, controlling for the effect of JV type and other components of intellectual capital.

The authors study a sample of Italian, Spanish, German and French nonfinancial listed firms over the 2010–2018 period, controlling for the fixed effects of the company's sector of operation and the year. The authors also analyze the effect of family control and influence on JV investment size, taking into consideration certain board characteristics, the type of JV, human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency while also controlling for a firm's profitability and size. To test the hypotheses, GLS panel data was used.

The results indicate that the size of the investment in JVs is smaller for family firms than for nonfamily businesses. The presence of CEO duality has an opposing effect on the size of the investment in joint ventures as it has a lowering effect in family businesses while it exerts an amplifier influence in nonfamily businesses. Moreover, the type of joint venture has a significant effect for family firms: the choice of a link joint venture reduces the size of the investment. The authors find that human capital efficiency increases JV investment size for all firms.

This study is the first to analyze the effect of the main dimension of socioemotional wealth – family control and influence – on a firm's JV investment size. It controls for the effect of JV type – link or scale – and the interplay of the other IC components.

Drawing on the theory of goal systems applied to family business this case study focuses on the interdependence between non-economic goals and family goals, in order to identify if and how achieving non-economic goals generates dysfunctional behavioural patterns for family members in the long term.

This study used an inductive, 20-year longitudinal case-study based methodology.

This case study shows how the business family faces ethical/affective dimensions, struggling every day for a balance and often undermining the legitimisation and differentiation of its children. Findings show that the achievement of non-economic goals can occur to the detriment of family goals, such as by generating a dysfunctional system, specifically in business family adaptability.

The principal limitation is that this single case study evidently does not allow for complete generalization of the findings.

This case study makes a contribution to alerting the family business system to the long-term risk they face in trying to simultaneously maintain both harmony/cohesion and ethics/responsibility. Practitioners and consultants are therefore called on to help family firm owners with adopting a strategic vision by considering possible long-term counterfinal (i.e. mutually incompatible) goals.

SMEs are the most widespread type of firm in the world, and consequently dysfunctional behavioural patterns within business families represent a prominent socio-economical problem for policy makers and institutions.

This study shows that, in the long term, that which is perceived to be a desirable goal can transpire to be a dysfunctional pattern. In doing so, this research introduces a new point of view to the literature on goal systems in family business.

This study aims to explore factors influencing voluntary adoption of international sustainability and integrated reporting guidelines within a mandatory reporting framework. Given South Africa’s political history, the authors argue that accounting practice can be used to secure the legitimacy and transparency of businesses.

Two logistic regression equations are used to predict the likelihood of firms’ subscribing to either Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Integrated Reporting (<IR>) framework, respectively. The authors consider annual, sustainability and integrated reports issued for the financial year ended 2014.

The results show a statistically and significant positive association between the adoption of the GRI’s guidelines and the level of transparency of non-financial disclosures and environmental sensitiveness. The application of the <IR> framework is also associated with the level of a firm’s transparency score and with its respective analyst following, which acts as a measure for capital markets requiring a high information environment.

This paper illustrates the development of integrated and sustainability reporting (SR) practices within an emerging market. By drawing distinctions between locally developed South African codes of corporate governance, namely, King I-III and international guidelines proxied by the GRI’s guidelines for SR, and the <IR> framework, the authors show that South African firms still adopt international guidelines despite the mandatory framework in place.