Antecedents of Innovation and Firm Performance in Family Businesses

Innovation is considered to be a crucial factor for the economic success and survival of family firms (Leenen, 2005). Certainly, the topic is of high theoretical and practical relevance and continuously receives rising attention by researchers and practitioners that aim to illuminate innovation in family firms from different perspectives (e.g. Altindag et al, 2011a; Craig und Moores, 2006; Spriggs et al., 2013). However, when considering the strong linkage between the family and the business in family businesses (Gersick et al., 1997), surprisingly little has been investigated in terms of factors such as inner familial functionality and/or socio-emotional wealth as antecedents of innovativeness. In fact, aspects such as family functionality and socio-emotional wealth play a decisive role for the well-being and performance of family businesses, as family members often put a greater deal of effort into the business than non-family employees. On the contrary, in case the inner familial functionality is negative and/or socio-emotional wealth preexists to a low degree the innovativeness and also performance of the business might be affected.
Therefore, this research project investigates the effect of factors, such as family functionality and socio-emotional wealth on the innovativeness and performance of family businesses. Established scales will be used to conduct a quantitative empirical study. As a result, we aim to highlight implications for both researchers and practitioners to better understand how family level factors affect innovativeness and the performance of family business.