While emotion in family business is beginning to garner closer attention among researchers, the nexus of emotion management and governance has received little attention to date. In this essay, we reflect on and extend the Special Issue contributions by integrating the emotion management literature with the family business and governance literatures. We suggest a governance approach of emotion through a multilevel integrated framework. We introduce “emotion governance” as an overarching set of informal and formal mechanisms that are rooted and developed in the embedded family business contexts. We argue that emotion governance influences the explicit emotion management strategies of family business members at different stages: ex-ante (incentive alignment), during the process (education and support), and ex-post (monitoring). It thereby contributes to ensure their accountability in line with family business continuity. Considering the heterogeneity of family businesses, we capture nuances in our framework across family business archetypes through a series of propositions. We chart an agenda for future research to advance the development of a theory of family business governance inclusive of emotion.
Building on social construction theory, this paper investigates how the presence of women on the board may affect access to credit because of lenders’ gender-stereotyped views. In our view this translates into different levels of the firm's bank debt. To evaluate the impact of gender as a social construct, we designed a within-country analysis in Italy by distinguishing between egalitarian and non-egalitarian contexts. To test our hypotheses, we used a sample of 3514 Italian listed and unlisted firms. Results showed a lower level of bank debt for firms with a relevant number of women in the boardroom (i.e., critical mass) if located in a non-egalitarian context. This effect was partially mitigated in firms during a crisis situation. While extant research explains gender-based differences in a firm’s financial structure by a change in inner-board mechanism/dynamics caused by differences in men/women characteristics, we argue that the social construction of gender may also induce lenders in different contexts to view boards with women differently in relation to access to credit.
Frame of the research: We aim to inform family business literature and family business managers on the effect to include women as managers by providing empirical evidence on their impact on innovation.Purpose of the paper: The paper investigates the impact of female directors on innovation in Family Businesses (FBs). We assume that the presence of women, due to recent generations with the presence of daughters or due to marriages involving third parties, could be more common than in non-FBs.Methodology: We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 755 Italian FBs through a count data model.Findings: Our findings show how and when the invisible women became visible and their effect on innovation performance. Prejudice against women in FBs is detrimental to innovation; however, both the presence of female family members in control positions and the presence of a critical mass helps to mitigate the effect of prejudice on innovation.Research limits: The sample is limited to Italian firms only. The social dynamics and the role of women in the entrepreneurial arena are strongly influenced by the institutional system in which the firm operates.Practical implications: Our findings will be relevant to family business owners and managers with regard to their innovation strategy. A greater understanding of the relationship between female directors and innovation may contribute to increasing the number of women in these important roles.Originality of the paper: We extend our understanding of the effects on innovation of the involvement of female family members on the board of directors. We discuss the invisibility of female family members. We enhance our growing knowledge on female directors in family businesses by studying women's roles as president or vice president, in relation to innovation.
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