Abstract
Governance in family businesses is a relatively recent research topic in the field of management studies. Much research has sought to shed light on the factors that shape the relationship between governance structures and corporate strategies. Nevertheless, very little research has specifically addressed the relationships between the configuration of the Board of Directors and the firm’s willingness to carry out innovative strategies. Our study aims to shed light on the relationship between the corporate governance structures and the pace of innovation within family SMEs. Evidence from three family-owned SMEs located in Tuscany (Italy) highlights that a traditional type of governance structure can co-exist with the search for innovative strategies and that the intensity of the innovation processes may not be tied to the Board’s composition.
Highlights
Governance in family businesses is a relatively recent research topic in the field of management studies
We began by analyzing the relationship between governance and innovation strategies within the firm that seemed to be characterized by a slower innovation pace; we continued with the firm that showed a notable but not very fast pace, and lastly, we investigated the firm in which we could detect a faster innovation pace
The joint analysis of the three cases highlights some similarities and some differences as regards the ir governance structure and the way they satisfy the need for new competences
Summary
Governance in family businesses is a relatively recent research topic in the field of management studies. A number of studies have investigated the impact of governance structures on innovation (Hoskisson, Hitt, Johnson, & Grossman, 2002), as well as the impact of the composition of the Board of Directors (hereafter BoD) on internationalization (Calabrò, Mussolino, & Huse, 2009; Arregle, Naldi, Nordqvist, & Hitt, 2012; Segaro, 2012; Majocchi & Strange, 2012; Corsi & Prencipe, 2015) and on the firm’s performance (Kouki & Guizani, 2015; Gonzàlez-Cruz & Cruz-Ros, 2016)
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