Does Internet exposure reduce the desire for family control? Evidence from China

Abstract

Family firms (FFs) are known as holding strong desire for family control but it is yet to be known whether and how Internet would alter such inclination. Invoked on the institutional logics perspective, we proposed that FFs with greater Internet exposure would reduce the desire for family control whereas the power of family logics manifested by the current (i.e., family ownership) and transgenerational (i.e., intention of intra-family succession) control should drag down the changes. Based on a Chinese national survey data, we found strong supports for the hypotheses except the moderating effect of transgenerational control. Overall, the study contributes to the family business (FB) literature by unveiling that technological changes can serve as additional antecedent of FFs' professionalization. It further highlights that different levels of family ownership lead to different responses to new institutional logics and findings in developed economies may not apply to those in emerging economies like China.