Gendered actual controlling shareholders and family business emotional attachment influences on business operational violations: A propensity score matching analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to ascertain how gendered family emotional attachment of actual controlling shareholders influenced business violation and its boundary functions. Our study participants were 1 707 actual controlling shareholders of Chinese listed family companies. For the data analysis, we performed Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The results suggest female-gendered attachment effects by which actual controlling of shareholders by female family members reduced business practice violations; particularly in the family-owned businesses. Findings may be explained by socioemotional wealth theory which proposes that decision-making is subject to emotional attachment in addition to rational considerations of economic factors.