Acquisitions by Family Firms : The Role of Socioemotional Wealth

By blending the behavioral theory of the firm with the socioemotional wealth perspective of family firm ownership our paper investigates how family ownership impacts timing and resource similarity of acquisitions. We show that the influence of socioemotional wealth concerns tied to family ownership when engaging in acquisitions alters with performance framing and, hence, whether performance aspiration levels are achieved. We also discuss how slack resources interact with socioemotional wealth concerns and ultimately bias acquisition activity in family firms. Our study makes several contributions to acquisition literature, the behavioral theory of the firm, and the emerging socioemotional wealth perspective.