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Prior family business research has been dominated by an agency theory perspective, narrow definitions of what constitutes family wealth, and a preoccupation with business governance mechanisms to the exclusion of family governance mechanisms. This chapter presents the findings of examining the role of a broader range of governance mechanisms (for the business; for the family) in achieving more comprehensive wealth (economic and non-economic) family business goals in the Australian context. Based on survey responses from around 400 family businesses, the findings from this study show that both family and business governance mechanisms contribute significantly to achieving both the business’s financial performance and the achievement of family-centered goals that are important to the owning family. The results also suggest that the relationship between governance and performance in the family business context is much more complex than that acknowledged in prior research and has implications for both future research and practice.

The study examines organization citizenship behavior (OCB) as a mediating variable between instrumental work values (IWVs) and organizational performance; and group differences between family manager and nonfamily manager for integrated models in family hotels. Data were collected from 189 hotels (n = 921) ranging from budget to three-star family hotels in Ghana using questionnaire administered conveniently. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Work value positively influences OCB and organizational performance of family hotels. OCB mediates the relationship between work values and organizational performance. The study also found significant support for group differences between family and nonfamily firms for IWVs and mediating effect of OCB on the relationship between IWVs and performance.

This study examines how women and men in family firms respond differently when asked about perceptions of financial performance. The study poses three research questions around this topic: Are there differences among female and male responses, do those perceptions change if men and women are leaders of the family business and does the family's socioemotional wealth (SEW) influence such responses.

This study uses a quantitative research design to determine if financial performance perceptions of family firms differ based on the gender of the respondents and their leadership position, and second, if SEW's dimensions influence those perceptions, using data from the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) survey in 2015.

The findings indicate that due to the lack of theory regarding gender as a social construct, empirical data collected for family business studies should take under consideration if respondents are women, men, leaders and the family influence in the family business when collecting data from surveys and asking for perceptions of financial performance. Results show that women in family businesses tend to have more positive perceptions of financial performance than men, but if women are leaders, those perceptions not only decrease but become negative. In addition, the family's socioemotional wealth (SEW) exacerbates those tendencies.

This study contributes to the literature by helping to understand the potential limitations of subjective measures of financial performance, as women increasingly become family business leaders. It also contributes to gender studies by demonstrating that there is a lack of gender theoretical perspectives specifically, gender roles, suggesting that differences in self-promotion and self-evaluation between men and women leaders of their family firms. Finally, this study adds to the study of SEW as a multidimensional construct by showing the different effects, or lack of them by each dimension and showing the strong effect of family continuity on the perception of financial performance.

Although succession planning can be important for the continuity of family firms, not all family business have the opportunity to engage in this planning. Sometimes, these organizations face crisis events that may trigger an intra-family succession. However, what happens when there is an unplanned succession? Are family businesses doomed to fail? This project aims to explore unplanned successions that are triggered by crisis and the impact that this can have on post-succession financial performance. The authors also examine the moderating role of successor characteristics (i.e. education and previous work experience) on this relationship.

The ideas were tested using data from 151 publicly listed family firms in China.

The findings indicate that having a crisis driven intra-family succession does not always result in lower post-succession performance. It is only successions that are triggered by market crises that negatively impact financial performance after the unplanned succession. In these instances, the education and previous experience of the successor moderate the negative relationship between market crisis succession and financial performance such that having more experience and a college education diminishes these negative effects on performance.

The results point to the importance of the preparation of the next generation in helping family firms navigate unplanned successions. The findings indicate that education and previous work experience of the successor can help a family firm manage a crisis.

This study continues to build the understanding about unplanned successions and the important role that successor preparation can have for the success of the family firm.

Family businesses have a dual objective of profit making and providing opportunities for family members. This duality leads to a conflict that may bring poor team work and communication, which is difficult to reconcile. Thus, the study looked into how the performance of family enterprises is affected by family dynamics. Additionally, it examines the relationship's ability to be mediated by effective leadership.

The study adopted a quantitative, explanatory research approach. The study population was family-owned enterprises in KwaZulu-Natal's South Durban Basin, of which 236 were chosen using a snowball and convenience sampling technique. Data was analysed using various descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, namely, multiple regression and the standard deviation.

The finding of the study shows that family dynamics significantly influenced business performance both directly and indirectly through effective leadership. Besides, the family firms with larger employee sizes have better effective leadership that positively contributes to the business performance.

The study recommends that family businesses should train their members to ensure leadership effectiveness.

This study is unique in that it was conducted in Black Townships and focusses mainly on businesses owned by families of Indian descent that need to prepare for leadership/ownership. It also contributes to academic literature on family dynamics and will encourage families to recognise the importance of strong leadership in controlling family dynamics to improve business success.

The search for competitiveness by family-owned companies has led us to research topics that may help these companies succeed. The management of human capital is undoubtedly one of the keys to success, and the practices of employee development (training, promotion, succession, career planning, mentoring and coaching) help improve the performance of these companies.

This paper is based on studying a sample of 560 family companies and analyzing the relationship between performance of the family businesses and the use of employee development practices. The techniques used were confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results show that employee development has a direct effect on the indicators of performance in family companies. The authors have developed a series of practical implications for companies that justify investments in and efforts with regard to employee career development.

Family businesses need to understand the development needs of their employees. In addition, the very processes and tasks performed. The authors have developed a number of practical implications for companies that justify the investments and efforts made in employee career development. This work validates the usefulness of the use of certain practices for the development of employees in family businesses, allowing the company to generate human capital to build a competitive position in the market.

The results of this study suggest that family businesses should understand the development needs of their employees and that various practices are available to help detect these needs. Family businesses should see individual development processes as an opportunity to improve the performance of employees, which could avoid conflicts in such businesses (Qiu and Freel, 2020). Companies should develop career and succession plans that enable these changes to be faced throughout the company, ensuring that when handover occurs, the candidates are sufficiently qualified in accordance with their career paths. The present research study shows that coaching is a powerful tool for improving performance. Moreover, mentoring appears to be an important part of employee development. For this reason, mentoring programs should be formally planned with designated objectives. In addition, family businesses should provide employees with real opportunities for promotion and the development of their skills and abilities, which is a way to retain nonfamily professionals (Ramankutty and Pujar, 2017).

Family businesses are a very important part of the productive activity of a country and their continuity is necessary to maintain employment and income. The management of people in family businesses is a key aspect for their success, therefore knowing the key aspects for the development of human capital will have a positive influence on maintaining employment and income.

This paper addresses the study of people development processes in family businesses and proves its usefulness to improve performance, considering the formal planning of succession processes and professional careers, providing qualifications to candidates and ensuring that they are show satisfaction with their professional evolution in the company. Likewise, it is positive for family businesses to use coaching relationships, formally scheduled and employing a coach from abroad. The other tool that will favor the development of employees is mentoring, formally programmed, establishing objectives and properly studying the mentor's profile. For this tool to be applied successfully, it is necessary to get the participants to commit to the mentoring process. Finally, the organization must provide its employees with real opportunities to promote, training them and developing their skills.

In the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, this article aims to analyze the resilience of family businesses in a developing country like Cameroon. As such, this study seeks to fill two gaps in the literature: first, by comparing the financial and social performance of family companies with those of non-family companies not listed on the stock exchange, and second, by comparing performance across family-run companies, according to the companies' mode of leadership in Cameroon, a developing country affected by COVID-19 like the rest of the world.

Based on the literature review, the authors developed empirical models to identify the variables which influence the financial and social dimensions of business performance. These models were tested with multilinear regressions, using data collected from questionnaires distributed to 466 firms, of which 212 were family firms and 254 non-family firms. The authors completed our analyses with mean comparison tests to demonstrate whether our results are significantly different between family and non-family firms.

The authors' multiple regressions and tests produced two main results – the financial and social performance of all Cameroonian firms declined sharply during the crisis, and with the firms' financial performance hit hardest, family firms have been more resilient to the crisis in terms of financial and social performance than non-family firms. The weak governance and social protection system, as well as an inefficient legal system, do not seem to negatively affect the performance of these Cameroonian firms – the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of family firms were better managed in firms where family members are actively involved in management or control through family members' strong representation on the board of directors (BD).

The two main limitations of this study concern the governance of these companies included and the failure to take the characteristics of the manager into account. Investigating other governance variables, such as the composition of the BD or the participation of employees in the capital, would enable us to refine the authors' interpretations of the companies' financial and social performance. Another limitation is the fact that the characteristics of the manager were not considered, especially when the manager is a family member. Exploring this variable would make studying the generational aspect of family businesses possible.

Family companies are more resilient to crisis because of the companies' long-term focus, which also encourages the companies to maintain the companies' social policy and to avoid redundancies as far as possible. Weak systems of governance and social protection, as well as an ineffective legal system, do not negatively affect the performance of Cameroonian family companies. The results also suggest that family shareholders should become more involved in the management and control of family's firms to make the firms financially and socially resilient and in so doing drastically reduce the impact of crises.

This study shows, in particular, how family firms are more socially resilient than other firms in times of crisis (by resorting less often to redundancies). Family firms should, therefore, arguably benefit the most from public support during crises.

The authors' research makes two main contributions to the literature on family businesses. The results first of all show that Cameroonian family firms have thus far performed better financially and socially during the COVID-19 period than non-family firms. Second, this research focuses on differences in performance based on family business management types during this specific crisis period. The results suggest that the most resilient family firms, in terms of performance, are those in which the family is involved in the management or control of the BD.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between being members of social media business networks and SME performance by comparing business performance between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks.

The analysis empirically draws on cross-sectional data of 9,292 English and Welsh family-owned SMEs from the UK's Government Small Business Survey 2015. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) is applied to control for selection bias and differences in firm characteristics before comparing business performance, measured in terms of annual turnover, sales-growth intention and innovation between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks.

The findings show that family-owned SMEs that are members of social media business networks are more likely to have higher prior turnover and to grow their sales than non-members. Also, they are more likely to report being innovative in products and processes than non-members. The empirical results acknowledge the importance of online business networks and digital social capital on enhanced family-owned business performance.

This paper is the first to explore the comparative analysis of business performance between family-owned SMEs that are members and non-members of social media business networks. This paper is important for the development of family business research by providing a comprehensive evidence-based analysis regarding the importance of online business networks to improve family-owned business performance, given the significant contribution of digital business activities to the UK economy.

As family and nonfamily businesses differ in how they do business, the focus of this manuscript is on understanding how strategy-level models can be misinterpreted if family involvement is not considered. Thus, in this manuscript, the focus is on understanding the extent to which strategic orientations (market orientation and technology orientation, which reflect strategic approach), strategic performance metric focus (financial-based, optimization-based and market-based, which reflect strategy evaluations) and strategic audacity (which reflects boldness in envisioning and delivering strategic outcomes) play a role in driving firm performance – in family businesses vs nonfamily businesses. Understanding how these drivers impact performance differently in family vs nonfamily businesses enables companies to better direct their strategic efforts.

After presenting theoretical concepts, authors use regression analysis on a sample of companies in a developing European Union (EU) country (n = 282) to evaluate the impact of strategic orientation, strategic performance metric focus and strategic audacity on firm performance separately in three samples: the full sample (consisting of both family and nonfamily-owned firms), sample of family businesses and the sample of nonfamily businesses.

The role of strategic orientation, strategic audacity and focal goals in driving firm performance differs depending on the company type (family vs nonfamily). In the case of nonfamily businesses, strategic audacity and technology orientation with the focus on efficiencies and markets are driving firm performance. In the case of family businesses, both market and technology orientation are important drivers of performance; the focus on financial and market indicators of performance is positively impacting performance, while the focus on efficiency indicators is diminishing the performance of family businesses. Thus, results show that of the performance drivers for family businesses, some are insignificant (strategic audacity), while some even have a negative impact (focus on optimization-based measures of performance) on family businesses' performance. Moreover, results show that some of the drivers of performance in case of family businesses (market orientation and focus on financial-based measures of performance) are not drivers of outstanding performance in the case of nonfamily businesses.

Best practices differ for family vs nonfamily businesses. In case of family businesses, comparing them to nonfamily businesses, market orientation and the focus on financial-based measures of performance have a greater impact on firm performance, while, at the same time, family businesses should refrain focusing on pursuing optimization-based measures of performance as such pursuit drives down their performance. Understanding the drivers of performance specific to family businesses will enable such firms to better navigate contexts characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty.

The manuscript evaluates how models, generally researched in the overall firm metrics, differ between family businesses and nonfamily businesses, thus delivering new insights into the important marketing concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the familiar character of the firm affects its size and performance. Specifically, if the confluence of business and family dimensions affects their chances of survival.

With data from 581 family, small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), the possible negative relationship between family, on the one hand, and size and performance, on the other hand is analyzed. First, the authors made a cluster analysis which distinguishes four groups attending the source of management, family next to external, and the generation, first against the rest. In addition, the authors contrast the existence of non‐linear adjustment through quadratic regressions.

Cluster analysis shows that the firms with family management in first generation are the ones with smaller size and worse performance. Regression analysis contrasts the negative relationship, but exclusively linear in nature. For all companies, regardless of the familiar character, the study confirms a negative relation of quadratic character. This paper clarifies the theories about the life cycle, so that they may be applicable to the family business. The companies must overcome the early stages, where the entrepreneurial impulse is key, to give way to more professionalized structures.

There are two fundamental contributions of this study. The first relates to the use of quadratic functions to model the relationship between family management and size and performance. The second relates to the life cycle of the family business and the role played by the family management; for that end the authors compare companies of family management in first generation with other companies to see to what extent the decision to retain a smaller size to preserve the family character is intentional.