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Aiming at the key issue of interpersonal interaction process between successors and top management teams in the context of family business trans-generational entrepreneurship, this paper aims to explore the motivation, action and results of interpersonal conflict between these two subjects mentioned above.

This paper uses grounded theoretical research methods based on the research objects of three family businesses with both inheritance and transformation needs.

Motivation difference, mediation mode and relationship utilization, that is, the successor and top management team take the goal-orientation, interest orientation and rational tendency as the starting point for relationship coordination. Then it mediates the interpersonal conflicts through compromise, collaboration and compliance, and ultimately provide successors with resources, opportunities, capabilities and motivation advantages to promote trans-generational entrepreneurship. Second, the path of relationship coordination comes from the background of social embedding, that is, the motivation difference comes from the embedding of motivation seeking, the mediation mode comes from the embedding of mediation elements and the relationship utilization comes from the embedding of relationship optimization. The research conclusions not only provide a theoretical framework for family businesses to solve the problems of interpersonal conflicts faced by family businesses but also have practical guiding significance for the trans-generational entrepreneurship.

There are two theoretical contributions in this study. First, the research starting point of social embeddedness theory from the perspective of interpersonal relationships at the microlevel is revised. Since Granovetter (Granovetter, 1985) put forward the theory of social embeddedness, its research scope has been gradually expanded, but the mainstream research in the past focused on analyzing the social network embeddedness of enterprises to obtain social capital from the macro- and meso-level (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). In fact, this may deviate from the essential interpretation of Granovetter’s theory of social embeddedness, while this study returns to the study of interpersonal relationships. Second, a theoretical model of relationship coordination for successors and top management team is put forward in general. On the basis of the motivation, action and result of interpersonal interaction between the successor and top management team, the interpersonal coordination action path and embedded logic during trans-generational entrepreneurship of family businesses are revealed, which enriched the research scope of social embedded theory in family business.

Drawing on family-business and business model (BM) literature the purpose of this paper is to explore whether a relationship exists between the family involvement in the management (i.e. closed or mixed management) and BM choice.

A multiple case study analysis of family-owned wineries in Chianti (Italy) and Côtes du Rhône (France) has been conducted.

The analysis surprisingly reveals that no relationship exists between the BM ideal type chosen and the type of management composition. Rather, it seems that the choice of hiring non-family managers is dictated by the willingness to reinforce the BM chosen by the owner and that the role played by non-family managers is not revolutionary but reinforces the owner’s BM choice. The authors propose that the stewardship theory can contribute in explaining the findings.

A twofold contribution is offered by this study: first, it links the strategic management research on BMs to family business (FB) research on corporate governance and specifically on the composition of management teams; second, it provides an empirical example of a cross-national comparative analysis on FBs using multiple case studies.

Conflicts among top management team (TMT) members have a significant impact on sustainable development of family enterprises in China. The complex attributes of different kinds of conflicts in a TMT have dual effects on firm performance and its stability. Thus, avoiding conflicts in a TMT through a systematic conflict management strategy is very important. This paper aims to therefore investigate how to maximize the performance and income level of the TMT in family enterprises through managing conflict systematically, while adopting the best conflict coping strategies.

In this study, the authors apply conflict coping strategies as a useful tool of conflict management and propose five kinds of dynamic conflict coping strategies among TMT members. Repeated game and multi-agent simulation by computer experiment are used to dynamically simulate the rules and evolution of individual conflict coping strategy choices.

It is found that with the passage of time, different conflict coping strategies have different effects on earnings of individuals and teams at different conflict levels. It is also revealed that conflict coping strategies affect not only the earnings of individuals and teams but also their distribution; it also reflects the conflict level in TMT of a family enterprise but in reverse.

This study contributes to the existing literature on conflict management in relevance to the choice and revolution of conflict coping strategies in a Chinese business culture context. It focuses on strengthening the unity and cooperation of TMT members. Controlling the conflict level of TMT members at a reasonable level, investigating the primary cause of conflict and identifying its nature lead to better performance of the TMT and the sustainable development of Chinese family enterprises. Based on these outcomes, different conflict coping strategies can be appropriately used to solve TMT conflicts.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the development and implementation of shared leadership in multi‐generational family firms. Shared leadership or family top management teams involve multiple family members in the top management and ownership of family firms.

A qualitative case study approach was employed, using in‐depth interviews of the top managers of four family businesses. Each case was analyzed separately, and emergent themes found in each case; and then generalizations were made across the four cases in the cross‐case analysis.

Eight factors or conditions were examined that affect shared leadership in multi‐generational family firms according to the respondents – long‐term orientation, close communication and shared understanding, resistance to change, succession planning, failure to release control, reporting relationship confusion, increased decision time, and higher decision quality. The result of this study is the production of eight propositions to build theory concerning shared leadership, which is an under‐researched area for family business studies.

This paper is rich in qualitative detail, but with all such case study research, its limitations regarding sample size are recognized.

This paper views shared leadership as a growing phenomenon that incumbent family business leaders should consider as a viable alternative to primogeniture or the choice of a single successor.

The study described in this paper is groundbreaking in that it examines shared leadership or the development and implementation of top management teams in family firms in depth and detail. The paper contributes a balanced view of the implementation of shared leadership in family firms, exploring both the positive and negative aspects.

The purpose of this paper is to unveil how family involvement in management teams of private Chinese companies affects professional managers’ psychological ownership and sense of “us”, in the hopes of understanding why their devotion cannot coexist with the higher level of commitment of family managers.

This paper includes two main studies. The first uses regression to analyze survey data provided by 165 professional managers working in Chinese private companies. The second is a scenario experiment in which 106 MBA candidates participate.

The study finds that there is a negative relationship between family management involvement and professional managers’ perceived relationship closeness to owners and psychological ownership of firms. It also finds that relationship closeness fully mediates the negative influence of family management involvement on managers’ psychological ownership.

This paper contributes to both the theoretical literature and management practice. From a theoretical perspective, it connects studies in indigenous sociological psychology with new literature on psychological ownership. The paper finds that personal relationships nurture the shared psychological ownership of managers by generating a sense of “us”, providing a new theoretical explanation for its formation process. Furthermore, this study offers an explanation for the negative signal effect of family involvement in management. From a practical perspective, this study finds that family involvement in management acts as a critical boundary condition for using personal relationships to stimulate professional managers.

This study aims to examine the relationship between family firm characteristics and audit fees. It also examines the extent to which the family name is considered a red flag during the risk assessment of these firm characteristics.

Using an external panel data set that includes 1,252 firm-year observations of 204 private German firms with a time series from 2010–2016, regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.

This study’s results indicate that family involvement in management and the supervisory board are negatively related to audit fees, suggesting less demand and supply of audit effort due to lower Type I agency conflicts. Family ownership is found to be positively associated with audit fees due to higher Type II agency conflicts. Moreover, the negative effect of family involvement in management on audit fees becomes weaker if the firm name contains the family name, indicating that it is considered a red flag by auditors during their risk assessment.

Prior studies that examined audit fees in family firms mainly compared family firms to non-family firms. However, auditors are not likely to look at firms in a dichotomous way during their risk assessment, especially as there are numerous definitions of family firms. Instead, they will assess the underlying characteristics regarding management, ownership and governance, although a firm name containing the family name may influence this assessment. This study contributes to the literature by accounting for the heterogeneity of family firms and examining how auditors will assess this heterogeneity.

This paper aims to examine the influence that family firms’ top management team (TMT) behavior and characteristics exert on their innovation opportunity realization.

Data were collected through a survey addressed to a representative sample of Italian firms. The analyzed sample consists of 237 firms, 120 of which are family firms. A series of ordinary least squares models were used to test the four hypotheses.

Family firms realize fewer innovation opportunities than non-family firms. This result is fully mediated by the knowledge exchange in the TMT as follows: in family firms, the TMT exchanges less knowledge than in non-family firms, which drives their lower realization of innovation opportunities. In family firms TMT, the increase in the non-family members positively influences the TMT knowledge exchange, but only when the time the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) spends in searching for innovation opportunities outside the firm is low. The more the CEO search increases, the more this positive influence decreases, up to the point it becomes negative.

The study contributes to the literature on innovation, knowledge management and organizational design in family firms. Nevertheless, data were collected at a single point in time and in a single country.

The study suggests family firms on how to foster the realization of innovation opportunities. A greater TMT knowledge exchange allows to realize more innovation opportunities and the TMT characteristics emerged as the drivers of this TMT knowledge exchange. As such, family firms should examine the interaction of their TMT composition in terms of non-family and family members with the effort that the CEO deploys to search for innovation opportunities outside the firm.

Empirical investigation of the link between family ownership, absorptive capacity and innovation performance by considering TMT behavior and characteristics.

Family firms that simultaneously engage in multiple levels of innovation – incremental and radical – are likely to enjoy performance advantages across generations. The purpose of this paper is to research under which management conditions (i.e. top management team (TMT) diversity in terms of generational or non-family involvement) family firms are more likely to achieve innovation ambidexterity. Also, the paper addresses the mediating role of open innovation (OI) breadth in this relationship.

A large cross-sectional sample of 335 small- and medium-sized family firms is used. The hypotheses were tested in a mediation model. The relationship between TMT diversity and ambidexterity is measured using a binominal regression analysis, the one between TMT diversity and OI breadth using a Tobit model.

Drawing on the family firm upper echelon perspective, the results indicate that TMT diversity induced through external managers and multiple generations is positively related to innovation ambidexterity. As the mediation analysis reveals, the relationship can be explained by the higher propensity of diverse TMTs to get involved in OI breadth. The findings add to the discussion on family firm heterogeneity and its influence on different kinds of innovation.

So far, few studies have been concerned with ambidextrous family firms. Contrary to their reputation, this study identifies family firms as radical as well as open innovators. As such, this research takes account not only of the heterogeneity of family firms, but also of the heterogeneity of family firm innovation.

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.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the gender diversity of top management teams (TMTs) on the financial performance (FP) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. This paper also examines the moderating effect of family control on this relationship.

Using a sample of SMEs in Vietnam, this paper uses descriptive statistics and balance panel regression with random effect to analyse 5,160 firm-year observations of family- and non-family-owned SMEs between 2011 and 2015.

The findings demonstrate that gender diversity in TMTs shows a negative relationship with the FP of family-controlled SMEs and no significant impact on FP of non-family SMEs. This study also illustrates a positive curvilinear relationship between the female manager rate in TMTs and firms’ FP in family SMEs.

This research study is limited to data from Vietnamese SMEs. Future studies could investigate these relationships with larger firms and in a broader geographical context.

This study provides a better understanding of the impact of TMT gender diversity on FP in Vietnamese SMEs while considering the moderating effect of family control. The findings support some theories relating to managerial gender diversity and the effect of family control on this diversity in family SMEs.