Thomas Zellweger

We demonstrate how Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) can be applied to generate profiles (i.e., homogenous subgroups) in a sample of family firms. In doing so, we highlight how LPA can provide additional insight into family firm phenomena when used in conjunction with other methodological approaches (i.e. regression). We compare LPA to other techniques (i.e., cluster analysis and qualitative comparative analysis) and show LPA’s superior ability to capture complex patterns of important family firm characteristics. We demonstrate how profiles can be linked to differences in dependent variables, providing family firm scholars with a tool to assess heterogeneity and its consequences among family firms.

We advance a dynamic institution-based view of the firm that extends the theory's current focus on scope of pro-market reforms (degree of market liberalization in a given year) to consider how speed of reforms (rate of market liberalization achieved over time) affects the performance of firms from transitioning economies. Utilizing a sample of public firms from Chinese provinces with varying reform speeds, we find that while scope of reforms positively impacts firm performance, speed of reforms detracts from firm performance. We further find that while family firms have an advantage in gradually reforming provinces, non-family firms have an advantage in rapidly reforming provinces. Thus, we extend the institution-based view across time (speed of reforms) and firms (family vs. non-family firms).

Affective organizational commitment is an important predictor of the willingness to contribute to organizational goals and is of particular relevance to family firms, as these firms often rely on long-term involvement of family members through transgenerational succession. Drawing on organizational commitment and ownership attachment theories, we probe the influence of family firm dynamics (i.e. family harmony and relationship conflict) on work-family conflict and family owner-managers' ownership attachment, which in turn impact affective organizational commitment. Based on a study of 326 family firms, we introduce ownership attachment as an important antecedent to affective organizational commitment. We find that ownership attachment is positively affected by both family harmony and work-family conflict, whereby work-family conflict is influenced by relationship conflict. We also find that work-family conflict affects ownership attachment.

For family firms, the resource-based view (RBV) stresses the relevance of intangible resources emerging in the unique interaction between the family and the firm, and captured through the notion of familiness. In addition to the possession of intangible resources- e.g. knowledge-based and reputational resources- the value of resources is dependent upon their use. Managers' involvement in strategy making is thus likely to moderate the relationship between the existence of intangible resources and performance. After hypothesizing about the positive relationship between knowledge-based resources and performance, and between reputational resources and performance in family firms, we differentiate between family involvement in continuous strategy making, and disruptive strategy making to capture the moderating role of familiness. [http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/fer/vol28/iss14/10 ]

Succession is the most prominent topic in family business research and the succession path that a family chooses will likely impact the future performance of the business. Yet surprisingly little is known about succession paths⸻the sequence, pace, and rhythm with which management, board, and ownership is transitioned from one generation to the next. Using an inductive, theory-building approach based on sequence analysis and evidence from succession paths in 142 public family firms in the US, we address this gap. Our study reveals nine distinct succession paths with five distinct sequences of how management, board, and ownership transitions are structured over time. These sequences not only vary in their pace and rhythm, but also in their performance consequences. Specifically, we find that family firms with fast-paced succession paths and those with slow-paced, rhythmic succession paths outperform those with irregular rhythms. Further, early-ownership transitions benefit firm performance. Establishing succession paths as a meaningful new concept in family business research, this study not only advances our understanding of the succession phenomenon but also extends our theoretical insights into temporal processes in family firm successions.