"Family Ownership Dispersion, Nonfamily Managers and Firm Productivity in SMEs"

Abstract

Drawing upon an internal/external recruitment perspective and the family business literature, we suggest that an increase in family ownership leads to a decrease in the proportion of nonfamily managers in small and medium-sized family firms, which can influence family firm productivity. We also suggest that family ownership dispersion moderates the link between family ownership and nonfamily managers as dispersed ownership manifests into fewer nonfamily managers. Hierarchical Tobit regression analyses on a sample of 2,138 Small Business Development Center clients and robustness tests support our hypotheses.