The family and the firm: A coevolutionary perspective

Understanding family firms’ debt maturity structure is important because it plays a key role in making strategic decisions and mitigating agency conflicts. This study investigates the relationship between family involvement in governance and debt maturity structure in family firms by drawing on governance literature and insights from the socioemotional wealth perspective. Based on a sample of non-financial Italian public family firms, comprising 383 firm-year observations, we find differences in the proportion of long-term debt depending on variations in components of family involvement in governance. In particular, later-generation involvement on the board is associated with a lower proportion of long-term debt. Furthermore, family ownership positively moderates this relationship such that the proportion of long-term debt is higher with high family ownership. This study contributes to literature by adding further nuance to our understanding of the heterogeneity of family firms, by considering the relationship between variations in family involvement in governance and debt structure. Our study has practical implications that may inform investors about factors related to family involvement in governance, which are likely to influence debt maturity structure, and thus long-term strategies of family firms.

Accelerated globalization has created new requirements for corporate strategies. Understanding the statistical relationship between economic globalization and family business development is important in advancing the theory and practice in this field. This study aims to explore economic changes and their influence on the family businesses when globalization thrives. To achieve this, we utilize a bibliometric analysis with visualization tools: VOSviewer and R Bibliometrix. The relevant literature from 1900 to 2021 is collected using retrieval formulas from the Web of Science Core Collection. First, this study analyzes the literature from multiple aspects, including authors, citations, journals, keywords, and countries, to define the features of the publications. Then, bibliographic coupling, co-citation, and co-occurrence analyses are conducted. The results show the evolution of the literature related to family businesses with globalization. Furthermore, the current challenges and popular issues are discussed for future research. This paper highlights the innovative measures of family businesses in the context of globalization and identifies the frontiers in this field.

Although previous studies have recognized the contingent nature of family firms’ aspirations, they have largely neglected cross-cultural heterogeneity. Drawing on the behavioral theory and socio-emotional wealth perspective (SEW), we reexamine the construct of family aspirations in a Chinese context. We argue that Chinese family firms have culturally specific aspirations that can influence their strategic behaviors. Based on a three-phase study employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, we develop and validate a measure of aspirations of Chinese families-in-business. Six dimensions of Chinese family aspirations are explored: family harmony, financial wealth, health and longevity, continuity of family line, family honor and guanxi, and great ambitions for the younger generation. Our findings also identify a set of topics that can be pursued in future research using our Chinese family aspirations scale.

It is widely acknowledged that narcissism is a peculiar characteristic of leaders, such as CEOs. However, the role of narcissism in CEO emergence and appointment has not been studied yet. We overcome this gap by studying whether having a highly narcissistic personality allows individuals to become CEOs sooner. We posit that these individuals have quicker career development, climbing the hierarchical chain faster. We also hypothesize that this relation may be moderated by the firm's characteristics, comparing family and nonfamily firms. Family firms are the most widespread organizational form of firms around the world, and their peculiarities might affect the appointment of narcissistic CEOs. Estimates on a sample of 172 individuals partially confirm the hypotheses. Highly narcissistic individuals become CEOs quicker, regardless of whether the firm is a family business or not. Narcissistic individuals thus benefit from their personality when aiming at becoming CEOs faster in their career advancement.