Governments’ new policy frequency and firms’ performance in an emerging industry: the difference between family and non-family firms

We examine how new policy frequency affects performance in the new-energy automobile companies from the industry’s inception to the present in China and distinguish the performance implication between family and non-family firms. We argue and find support that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between new policy frequency, including the three sub-dimensions of economic and financial instruments (EFI), soft instruments (SI), and regulatory instruments (RI), and firm performance; in addition, this relationship is in general moderated by family firm status. We contribute to the institutional theory by adopting a dynamic view that tracks policies over time and showing differential effects of institutional changes on firms with and without family firm status. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.