Expert insights on the determinants of cooperation in family firms in tourism and hospitality sector

Abstract

Despite the inherent differences between family and non-family firms and heterogeneity among family companies, family involvement is under-researched in organizational studies, which limits the generalization of findings and leads to theoretical ambiguity. However, we do not know enough about the family firm specific determinants of inter-firm cooperation and how this may affect firm performance. Thus, we examine formal and informal cooperative strategies of family firms in the tourism and hospitality sector in the metropolitan area of Hamburg (Germany) by drawing upon networks and social capital theories and the extant family firm literature. Since cooperation is a strategic action which can be influenced by outsiders’ perceptions, we do not solely focus on family firm owners' attitude towards collaboration. Instead, we develop propositions about family firms' cooperative behavior derived from an initially conducted online survey with tourism experts. We find support for our propositions that tourism experts expect family involvement to drive firms' cooperative behavior which in turn can influence firm performance. Thereby, personal attributes of the cooperation partner seem to be more salient in family firms than in non-family firms.