Family involvement in publicly traded firms and firm performance: a meta-analysis

CITATION

Taras, V., Memili, E., Wang, Z., & Harms, H. (2018). Family involvement in publicly traded firms and firm performance: a meta-analysis. Management Research Review, 41(2), 225–251

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ABSTRACT
Purpose – This study aims to investigate the effects of family involvement in corporations on firm
performance. It remains unclear whether family-owned companies, or companies with other forms of family
involvement in the corporate governance, perform better than firms with no family involvement.
Furthermore, the study focuses on family involvement in publicly traded firms, which are different from
private family firms. Hence, knowledge about family firms will be enriched through a closer look at the
publicly traded family firms and shed further light onto the heterogeneity among family firms.
Design/methodology/approach – The present study uses a meta-analysis of the extant research on
family involvement and publicly traded family firm performance. The authors synthesize past research, identify
and reconcile mixed findings and expand the understanding of the phenomenon.
Findings – Involvement of the founding family members in firm governance tends to improve firm
performance, albeit the effect is rather weak. However, the effect varies greatly depending on the type of family
involvement and themeasure of performance. The authors also identify regional differences, as well as variations
by the firm size and study design. Furthermore, under-researched areas are identified for future research.
Practical implications – The results of the study would be useful in guiding organizational design and
investment decisions.
Originality/value – By using the meta-analytic approach, the present study provides a comprehensive
review of the empirical evidence available on the issue so far. Most importantly, the authors were able to
conduct a series of tests to assess the moderating effects of a number of factors that could not be evaluated in
any individual study in the meta-analytic database.


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