Abstract
Purpose - Despite the importance attached to the governance of family businesses, few studies have focused on the importance of family business governance in the Moroccan context. This article provides some specificities of family firms and an overview of main governance mechanisms identified in the literature while presenting the main contributions of agency and stewardship theories. We introduce a governance approach centered on the issue of strengthening family ties and increasing the commitment of family members to the firm. The purpose of this paper is to identify the governance mechanisms adopted by CEOs of Moroccan family businesses of the second generation. 
 
 Method - the authors used a qualitative method, using face to face semi-structured interviews among ten CEOs of family businesses in Morocco. Through the analysis of verbatim responses of Moroccan CEOs, we were able to identify some of the governance mechanisms they adopt to ensure a certain continuity of their business.
 
 Findings-The results suggest that most of the Moroccan managers opt for an informal and unwritten system of governance. According to them, the important thing is to share values and vision while maintaining communication. Even family meetings remain informal, the crucial thing is to preserve family solidarity, as far as the system of governance is known by all the members. We have identified three informal governance mechanisms, family meetings, task management, and sharing a family vision. The results have also shown some of the sources of conflicts among family members. 
 
 Practical implications – This paper helps to raise awareness among Moroccan leaders on the importance of governance. Whether formal or informal, it is essential to have common rules shared by family members, which will enable the firm to last over time.
 
 Originality - This paper contributes to research on family businesses by exploring a different context especially in terms of culture and country values. Our paper has the originality to focus on a specific area of investigation, namely the Moroccan context, where the management model of family businesses is different from anterior contributions.
Highlights
Over the past decade, several research studies have recorded the importance of family businesses, mainly known for their specific characteristics within the scientific community (Suess, 2014; Chrisman, 2017; Lee,2019)
The unanimity of the responses showed that the main mechanisms to be respected are in particular: to share tasks between family members, to have a common and shared family vision, and to respect family meetings, whether formal or informal
Apart from the questions we asked about governance mechanisms, CEOs assert that studying governance in the Moroccan context must shed light on other factors related to the cultural aspect like collectivism, individualism and intergenerational authority.: “It is very important to integrate the cultural variable especially when we protect each other", “we have to consider the cultural values of the family related to family solidarity”
Summary
Several research studies have recorded the importance of family businesses, mainly known for their specific characteristics within the scientific community (Suess, 2014; Chrisman, 2017; Lee,2019). Being aware of the particularities of this type of firm, researchers studied family business issues in a range of different fields and disciplines. According to statistics revealed by the International Family Enterprise Research Academy, the predominance of family businesses in the world, especially in the European countries (IFERA, 2015). They can differ from one country to another. Researchers took into consideration the values, of different cultures while studying family businesses (Sharma and Chua, 2013)
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