Socioemotional Wealth Approach Research Articles

The role of female directors in family firms’ annual report´s readability

PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of board gender diversity on the readability of the annual reports of family-controlled public companies.Design/methodology/approachGrounded in the premises of the restricted and extended views of the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach and executive power theory, this paper explores the ways in which family-affiliated female directors influence report readability in a sample of 133 publicly traded US companies listed in the Fortune 1,000. We use the system GMM estimator, which deals with two key sources of endogeneity by controlling first for reverse causality, using the lags of the endogenous variables as instruments, and then for omitted variables, capturing the individual effect.FindingsOur analysis confirms that the significant enhancement in annual report readability is associated with the presence of female family directors, particularly those who are insiders within the company. In contrast, non-family female directors and family outsider directors appear to have a negative impact on annual report readability.Originality/valueWhile scholars have increasingly focused on variations in annual report readability among family firms, the contribution of female directors to this phenomenon has received minimal attention. In our study, we integrate the theories of restricted and extended SEW perspectives with the theory of women’s executive power within the board. This integration is essential for considering two critical factors: firstly, the primacy of their SEW objectives, and, secondly, their legitimacy within the board.

Socio Emotional Wealth Approach and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Indonesia

Socio Emotional Wealth Approach and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Indonesia

View of institutional ownership and value relevance in Indonesia: the nexus of accounting conservatism

PurposeOur study aims to explore the ownership structure and accounting conservatism in influencing the value relevance that we analyse through the paradigm of open innovation and socio-emotional wealth (SEW). We also extended the test to identify how firm size could affect value relevance.Design/methodology/approachThrough panel data testing, we collected all issuers on the stock exchange for the 2016–2018 period. The total collected observations are 735 observations from various industries.FindingsThe results of the study provide empirical evidence that institutional ownership is more pronounce, especially in companies with high asset levels. We also conducted other tests to see it from the perspective of SEW. We divide companies into family and non-family companies. The results of this study indicate that institutional ownership has an effect on increasing value relevance, especially in family companies compared with non-family companies. The results of the study also indicate that accounting conservatism plays a more important role in increasing value relevance in non-family firms compared to family firms.Originality/valueThis study advances in two main ways. First, we use a SEW approach and an open innovation perspective. Second, we conducted tests for family and non-family firms.

Family Firms’ Shareholder Structure and International Acquisitions: A Differentiated Socioemotional Wealth Approach

From a mixed gamble perspective, we contend that family firms (FFs) with different family shareholder structures are confronted with different trade-offs among current and prospective financial and socioemotional wealth (SEW), leading to differences in their international acquisition choices. We also explore the moderating role of family leadership and performance aspirations. Our findings show that FFs with a dominant family owner are more likely to pursue international acquisitions, especially when FFs are led by a family CEO or when they experience below-target performance, as in such cases, they prioritize prospective financial and SEW gains, thereby sacrificing current SEW and financial wealth.

It’s a Family Affair: A Case for Consistency in Family Foundation Giving and Family Firm Community CSR Activity

Although most business-owning families (BOFs) that operate large family firms practice community social engagement both in private via family foundations and in the business domain via community corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, the relationship between their activities in the two domains remains unclear. Prior literature speculates that BOFs will deprioritize firms’ community CSR when they have family foundations as more efficient vehicles to achieve socioemotional wealth (SEW), which would imply that such BOFs are less ethical in operating their firms. We contrast these speculations by enriching the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach with instrumental stakeholder theory and cue consistency arguments and theorize that BOFs seek to ensure consistency between their activities in the two domains. Using data from 2008 to 2018 on the 95 largest US public family firms whose BOFs also operate private foundations, we show a positive relationship between family foundation giving and firm community CSR activity. Furthermore, we provide evidence for the boundary conditions of this relationship, showing that it is weaker for firms that do not share the family’s name and stronger for those firms with family leaders who also lead their families’ foundations.

Female CEOs and default risk in listed family firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of female CEO board members on listed family firms’ corporate default risk, integrating upper echelons theory with social role theory and the socio-emotional wealth approach and proxying default risk with the Black–Scholes–Merton model. It also searches for possible differences attributable to the type of female CEO.Design/methodology/approachThis study is applied to a longitudinal sample of listed US family firms. After a preliminary analysis of the main descriptive, several models are estimated with the system GMM estimator, which is a panel data estimator. The models are dynamic, including the lagged value of the dependent variable. In addition, the model estimation is repeated with a different measure of default risk, for robustness.FindingsThis research findings show that default risk diminishes in the presence of a female CEO, whose reduction is even greater if she is a family member. The results are proven to be robust to the measure for proxying default risk.Originality/valueThis study primarily contributes to the existing literature by exploring a possible link between female CEOs, particularly those with a family affiliation, and a lower level of default risk in family firms. It also provides practical implications for policymakers, who would be advised to promote conditions enabling women to contribute towards family business viability. In addition, this study offers encouragement for family business owners to value the potential of their female family members in company succession processes.

Family Firms’ Acquisitions and Politicians as Directors: A Socioemotional Wealth Approach

This study analyzes how family control influences firms’ acquisition activity using a socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach and discusses their anticipated SEW gains and losses when making acquisition decisions. Data collected from Spanish public companies from 2010 to 2015 indicates that family firms are more reticent about undertaking acquisitions than nonfamily firms, and their lower propensity is more pronounced when there are no former politicians on the board of directors whose presence could reduce potential SEW losses. Furthermore, the benefits of former politicians on the board of family firms in terms of acquisition activity only occur in low-velocity industries.

Unity or commitment: A generational view of innovation in family firms

AbstractTaking a qualitative approach, this study aims to identify the effects of family involvement on firms' innovation decisions and examine how this relationship is affected by the presence or absence of firm founders. Content analysis facilitates building a map to identify two modes of family influence on business and innovation: the business‐first and family‐first modes. In the former, commitment and long‐term orientation encourage innovation as the principal means of survival, especially when the founder is no longer present. In the latter, unity constrains innovation, most commonly in firms led by a present founder. In contrast to the tenets of the socioemotional wealth approach, a first‐generation family firm may suffer from myopia when family interests prevail over the firm's interests, even when business continuity is at stake.

R&D COLLABORATION BREADTH AND FAMILY-FIRM INNOVATION EFFICIENCY: THE ROLE OF FAMILY MANAGEMENT AND GENERATIONAL STAGE

This paper examines the relationship between R&D collaboration breadth and innovation efficiency within family firms. Based on the socioemotional wealth approach and recognising that family firms constitute a rather heterogeneous group, we study family firms’ differences in the way of addressing the R&D collaboration breadth-innovation efficiency link, taking into account family management and the generational stage. Using a panel dataset of 424 manufacturing family firms during the 2007–2016 period, we find significant differences across family firms in the translation of gains from R&D collaboration breadth into innovation efficiency. Specifically, our findings reveal that family firms with higher levels of family management and in first generational stage weaken the R&D collaboration breadth – innovation efficiency link.

High-performance work systems in family firms: A mixed gamble approach

Research on the use of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) in family firms has yielded mixed evidence. This study aims to bridge this gap by using the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach and the behavioral agency model (BAM) to explain why certain family firms have a greater incentive to use HPWS. We argue that the decision of family firms to implement HPWS is part of a mixed-gamble scenario of balancing risks with financial and family wealth prospects. Our results from 453 Spanish medium-sized and private family firms confirm that the importance of preserving SEW has a positive effect on the adoption of HPWS and that this influence is particularly pronounced in high-risk firms whose management is mainly controlled by family members and by the second generation. These findings contribute to the literature by explaining how using HPWS by family firms is significantly contingent on business risk.

Influence of Government Support on Proactive Environmental Strategies in Family Firms

Scholars have dedicated significant efforts to understanding the factors that influence the environmental strategy of a firm, in order to mitigate the negative impacts on the ecosystem. Learning more about the factors that encourage environmental behavior allows managers and policy makers to improve action and advance correctly in this direction. Despite this academic interest, the literature regarding family business has undertaken limited attention over the issue. Hence, our paper aims to advance in this line of research, by empirically examining the relationship between government support in family firms and their investment in environmental protection. Specifically, we intend to analyze whether the family nature, and the government financial support, influence their environmental strategy. The empirical analysis is developed with a sample of 1802 manufacturing firms in Spain, using a binary logistic regression to evaluate the existence of dependency relationships between the analyzed variables. The results show this dependency, confirming family nature and government support as significant factors for a proactive environmental strategy, funding the idea that family character positively affects environmental performance in line with the socio-emotional wealth approach, and these differences are greater if the company operates mainly in a local area. Likewise, family firms that receive state direct and indirect funding, invest more in environmental issues to mitigate negative external impacts. The practical implications of the results obtained are especially useful for managers of family businesses as well as for central governments and local institutions as a matter of reflection. To reduce administrative processes and costs for family firms in terms of direct and indirect support is of great importance, as an inadequate process may become a barrier to develop environmental strategies.

How Does Family Involvement Affect Environmental Innovation? A Socioemotional Wealth Perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine how family involvement affects the environmental innovation of firms. While prior studies have shown that family involvement can enhance environmental performance, these environmental performances have been portrayed as firm activities to prevent environmental issues, such as air pollution, CO2 emissions, etc. We maintain that environmental performance should be more proactive and enable firms to transform their activities more fundamentally towards environmental protection. In this sense, we consider environmental innovation, i.e., technological development to address environmental issues, as a proactive measure enacting firm activities to address environmental issues. Furthermore, we determine whether and how family involvement can motivate firms to develop technologies for environmental performance. To illuminate this relation, we utilized a socioemotional wealth perspective, which provides useful insights into how family-controlled firms behave differently in comparison to non-family firms. Building on this socioemotional wealth approach, we suggest that family involvement helps firms engage in environmental innovation. In this study, we also explore how the positive link between family involvement and environmental innovation is dependent on family interlocks—the circumstance wherein a firm’s family directors are affiliated with the boards of directors of other firms. Specifically, we suggest that an increase in a firm’s family interlocks would strengthen the positive relationship between family involvement and environmental innovation. To test our ideas, we used a sample of 623 US public firms ranging from 1996 to 2010, which yielded 5047 firm-year observations. We find that family involvement facilitates the environmental innovation of firms. We also find that family interlocks intensify the positive effect of family involvement on environmental innovation. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of our results.

Out of the Comfort Zone! Family Leaders’ Subsidiary Ownership Choices and the Role of Vulnerabilities

Based on the socioemotional wealth approach and a sample of 3,904 subsidiary ownership choices made by 586 family firms, this study shows that family-managed firms (i.e., those family firms with a family member in a leadership position) prefer wholly owned subsidies over joint ventures when entering foreign markets. Family-managed firms are also more likely to revise their subsidiary ownership choices and form joint ventures when in vulnerability conditions, that is, when they experience performance below aspirations and when entering a culturally distant market.

Influence of family-centered goals on dividend policy in family firms: A socioemotional wealth approach

Socioemotional wealth (SEW) preservation is likely to be a key determinant for family firms when shaping their dividend policy. This paper analyzes how family-centered goals reflected by SEW can influence dividend policy in private family firms and explores how family involvement in management, generational stage, and firm hazard might moderate these relationships. Results indicate a negative association between SEW preservation and both the likelihood of giving dividends and the amount of dividend paid. This negative relationship is stronger when the CEO is a family member, in early generational stages and when the firm faces greater performance hazard. The amount of dividend paid is also lower when there are family members in other top management positions apart from the CEO. The evidence provided thus suggests that the existing heterogeneity in dividend policy in privately held family firms is strongly driven by differences in SEW priorities.

Sustainability Practices in Australian Firms: The Effect of Family Control and the Generational Stage

This paper examines the effects of family control on a firm’s adoption of sustainability practices, with special attention given to the heterogeneity of the family business derived from the generational stage of the company. Using a panel of 166 Australian companies listed between 2011 and 2018, we found that family businesses have lower sustainability scores compared to non-family businesses, according to the predictions of the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach. For a subsample of family businesses, we found that multi-generational family businesses score better on sustainability than firms managed by the founders (first-generation). The SEW perspective could explain the effects of family control based on the pursuit of non-economic goals and the higher risk-aversion of family businesses. The decline in non-economic goals resulting from the ageing of the company stimulates the adoption of better sustainability practices. The generational stage of a family business could be a moderator of the relationship between family control and the adoption of sustainability practices and is a central element in explaining the disparity in the sustainability policies within family businesses.

Do family firms contribute to job stability? Evidence from the great recession

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze if choices made by family businesses (FBs) regarding job stability in economic recessions are different, on average, to those made by nonfamily firms. Moreover, the study tries to elucidate if this potential difference depends on the family generation that is in charge. The analysis relies upon a sample of 55,091 Spanish firms, as Spain is one of the countries that suffered the greatest impact of the 2008 Great Recession.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, the authors built a database of 55,091 Spanish firms, 45,351 family firms and 9,740 nonfamily firms, for the period 2007–2015. Based on the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach, this article sheds light on the question of whether family identification, binding social ties and long-term vision lead FB to behave differently from nonfamily businesses in human resource management.FindingsIn times of crisis, FBs do maintain jobs to a higher extent than nonfamily businesses, and this effect is especially intense when the first generation is in charge. According to the SEW approach, the emotional links between ownership and management make the firm more prudent when hiring during good times and when firing in times of crisis. This makes employment in FBs more stable than in private ones. This result has two positive effects. Higher job stability is an additional contribution of family firms to social welfare and happiness. Furthermore, a larger share of family firms involves stronger automatic macrostabilizers to deal with the business cycle, supplementing fiscal macrostabilizers, such as personal income tax (PIT) or unemployment insurance.Practical implicationsFamily firms maintained employment more than nonfamily firms did during the crisis. The emotional links between ownership and management and the long-term vision make the firm more prudent when hiring during good times and when firing in times of crisis. These features could make family firms more cautious in terms of hiring and firing and thus enable them to offer their employees implicit employment protection and stability. This positive effect decreases as firm age advances, due to the minor linkage between ownership and employees, in spite of maintaining identification and long-term vision.Social implicationsFrom a policy perspective, greater job stability is an additional contribution of family firms to social welfare and happiness. Hence, a larger share of family firms would involve stronger automatic macrostabilizers to deal with the business cycle, supplementing well-known fiscal macrostabilizers such as the PIT or unemployment insurance. The idea of family firms as countercyclical agents linking the micro dimension with the macro dimension becomes more interesting in the present context with the crisis generated by COVID-19.Originality/valueIn addition to contributing to the scarce literature on FB and employment in times of crisis, this paper also considers the generational effect on employment in the economic crisis context from the SEW approach. In addition, sound econometric methodology applied using an extremely large database grounded the results. In contrast with studies in the FB field that have typically focused on large listed firms (Mazzi, 2011), the study relies upon a database of privately held companies, which are more representative of FBs in civil law countries, such as Spain. The Spanish case is particularly interesting because it was one of the OECD countries shocked by the Great Recession. Finally, the authors propose family firms as countercyclical agents linking the micro dimension to the macro dimension.

Financial Reporting in Family Firms: A Socio-Emotional Wealth Approach Toward Information Quality

The strategic choices of family firms are influenced by economic and non-economic reference points. We contend that the preservation of the affect-related values a family derives from its ownership position in a firm (i.e., socio-emotional wealth – SEW) affects financial reporting quality and earnings management strategies. Using the voluntary International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption by Italian unlisted family firms as a natural laboratory setting, we found that the level of SEW endowment impacts on financial reporting quality. Furthermore, we observe that IFRS adoption is associated with less accrual but higher real activity manipulation for increasing levels of SEW endowment.

Financial reporting in family firms: a socioemotional wealth approach toward information quality

ABSTRACT The strategic choices of family firms are influenced by economic and noneconomic reference points. We contend that the preservation of the affect-related values a family derives from its ownership position in a firm (that is, socioemotional wealth [SEW]) affects financial reporting quality and earnings management strategies. Using the voluntary International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption by Italian unlisted family firms as a natural laboratory setting, we found that the level of SEW endowment impacts on financial reporting quality. Furthermore, we observe that IFRS adoption is associated with less accrual, but higher real activity manipulation for increasing levels of SEW endowment.

What Drives Family Firms’ Overseas Acquisitions? A Differentiated Socioemotional Wealth Approach

Family decision-makers make strategic choices which span a mixed gamble between non-economic (or socioemotional) and economic reference points, leading to heterogeneous out-comes. By considering family firms’ international acquisitions as mixed gambles, the aim of this article is to theorize and test whether, at different levels of family ownership concentra-tion, family decision-makers are confronted with trade-offs among financial, current and prospective socioemotional wealth (SEW) gains and losses which could lead to differences in their acquisition choices. Furthermore, we explore the moderating role of performance aspirations and family leadership to define the boundary conditions of SEW. Tested on a panel (2000-2014) of Italian family firms, our main findings suggest that family firms with high family ownership concentration show a higher propensity towards international acquisitions when they experience below-target performance and are led by a family CEO, as they prioritize financial and prospective SEW gains, sacrificing current SEW.

It’s not all about the money: narratives on emotions after a sudden death in family businesses

Emotions matter in businesses but have received little research attention. The socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective is applied to gain a better understanding of the role of emotions in family businesses in the case of a sudden death of a key family and business person. The study contributes methodologically by applying a novel combination of case study and narratives of two families and their firms after experiencing a sudden death. The study contributes theoretically to the family business literature on emotions by providing a multilevel perspective and highlighting how the family business and the business family intertwine in a highly emotional situation, and to the SEW approach by offering a more nuanced understanding of the role emotions play over time. Emotions shape the decisions families make for the firm, but the firm also provides an emotional arena for family members to cope with their struggles. Employees are a part of the SEW considerations as families balance their moral obligation to protect the interests of non-family employees. To better cope with a crisis, family members should be well informed of or involved with the family firm even if they do not actively work there.