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Family firm performance through transformational CEO leadership and familiness-related team forces

Carolin Neffe (Münster University of Applied Sciences, Münster, Germany)
Celeste Wilderom (Department of Change Management and Organizational Behavior, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands)
Frank Lattuch (Münster University of Applied Sciences, Münster, Germany)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 24 May 2024

Issue publication date: 24 July 2024

233

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to test the role of familiness-related team forces induced by the CEO of family firms. In particular, we report on the effects of the transformational leadership style of CEOs on their respective top-management team (TMT) and firm performance when viewed through a familiness lens.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey measures were taken from a snowballed sample of 72 CEOs of German family firms as well as from 245 members of their TMTs. We tested the aggregated firm-level data with objective performance indicators of the firms they led.

Findings

Support was obtained for the three hypothesized team-force mediations and the four-path mediation model. The relationship between CEO’s transformational style and high family-firm performance is found to be serially mediated by TMT cohesion, behavioral integration and efficacy. Together, these three types of collective forces are assumed to be the familiness effect of a family-member CEO with a transformational leadership style.

Originality/value

With our model, we quantitatively tested familiness-type forces vis-à-vis firm performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords

Citation

Neffe, C., Wilderom, C. and Lattuch, F. (2024), "Family firm performance through transformational CEO leadership and familiness-related team forces", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 45 No. 6, pp. 992-1010. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-09-2023-0536

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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