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The purpose of this paper is to assessthe probable influence of some of the emotional costs and returns expected by owners on their family business sale decision; and examine if the perceived economic environment during the economic and financial crisis of 2008 had an impact on the intention to sell their family business.

The research is based on a sample of 69 family businesses responding to a postal questionnaire survey. The empirical study is made up of a descriptive analysis of the factors influencing the intention of a family business sale and an explanatory analysis of the sale intention.

The desire for family business renewal through family generational succession is the main emotional factor lying behind the decision to continue/sell the business. Furthermore, the financial and economic crisis does not seem to be a factor that accentuates the intention to sell the family business even if firms’ financial performance has declined.

Future research could implement a direct measure of owners’ performance thresholds and explicitly integrate the moderating role of “Perceived economic environment.”

By showing that continuity is a key concern for family business owners, the research invites them to effectively prepare their succession instead of postponing this strategic process given its significance in guaranteeing the survivability of the family business.

Executives who perceived economic conditions as very poor are less likely to consider the sale of the business in the horizon of two years than executives perceiving them as “normal.” The study confirms that in family-owned businesses, for the owner-managers and the active and serene family shareholders, the sale price does not compensate for their emotional regret evaluated through the loss of the family business’ emotional value.

Notwithstanding a number of studies that led to the development of different performance measurement systems incorporating contingency factors, very scarce research on the variety of balanced scorecards (BSCs) indicators used in performance management were carried out in France. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a significant relationship between contingency factors and the content of balanced scorecards in terms of the degree of use and a variety of performance indicators.

In total, 2,580 French intermediate-sized enterprises (ISE) were identified through the Diane Database (Bureau Van Dijck) then contacted by the means of a survey questionnaire that was built online using LimeSurvey software. This study receives 156 complete and usable responses. The research model was tested through multiple regressions and multi-group analyses.

The results show that ISEs financial managers do not use, to the same extent, all the indicators constituting the four dimensions of BSCs. Therefore, BSCs implemented by French ISEs can be described as “unbalanced”. Furthermore, three contingency factors (computerization, decentralization and market listing) were found to be significantly associated with the variety and degree of use of performance indicators in balanced scorecards. The remaining contingency and control factors did not seem to influence the degree of use and variety of BSCs content.

The findings highlight the importance of developing tools that have the potential to evolve in line with organizational, environmental and technological changes. Furthermore, this paper provides food for thought for financial directors and management controllers as to how to better meet senior management, managers and operational staff information needs.

While there is scarce academic work on BSCs in ISEs, the present research is, to the best of the knowledge, one of the rarest to apply and test a contingency approach on a sample of ISEs.

Owing to its specificities, the family small and medium enterprise (SME) shows a particular behavior as for the creation, development, sharing, protection and transmission of knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to study the specificities of the processes of knowledge creation and development in family firms.

Through a questionnaire, hypotheses of the model were tested. The study is based on 118 firms belonging to various industries. After evaluating the reliability and validity of the items through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the model was tested through structural equation modeling (LISREL).

The model retained induces the following conclusions. Internationalization knowledge positively influences internationalization degree of the firm. The conservatism of family SME does not directly influence the level of internationalization knowledge. The influence of conservatism on internationalization knowledge is exerted only through the decisional dimension of independence orientation. The independence orientation of family SME, then with its two dimensions simultaneously (decisional and resource independence), does not significantly influence internationalization knowledge. Contrary to decisional independence which influences indirectly the degree of internationalization (through the intermediation of internationalization knowledge), resource independence influences directly the dependant variable. The mediation of internationalization knowledge is thus not totally proven. Social networking positively influences the amount of internationalization knowledge.

A major weakness is the absence of a synchronic approach as the dependent and independent variables are measured at the same moment. A more longitudinal approach would be valuable to analyze the causal relationships between the independent variables and internationalization knowledge and internationalization degree. A second limitation is that the characteristics of the sample may limit the generalizability of the results.

To the author's knowledge, the paper is the first of its kind to examine the knowledge‐based processes in family businesses.