While family small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increasingly involve women in their boards, the role of female directors as catalysts of innovation is yet to be fully understood. Drawing on upper echelons theory, we examine directors' gender in conjunction with family affiliation to investigate the influence of family female directors on family SMEs' innovation. Moreover, by analyzing the contingent role of socioemotional wealth preferences, we open the black box of noneconomic aspects shaping the cognition and behavior of boards. Our analysis of a unique survey-based sample of 287 Belgian family SMEs reveals that family female directors do exert a positive influence on R&D intensity. However, according to the mixed gamble logic, this influence is filtered by the positive and negative moderation of their socioemotional wealth preferences.
We draw upon the socioemotional wealth perspective and the mixed gamble approach to employ a five-year panel dataset of 223 Belgian private family firms to investigate the relationship between family management and growth, with family management ownership, generational involvement, and the CEO's family status moderating this link. We find an inverted U-shaped relationship, with growth reaching its maximum at intermediate levels of family management. Additionally, we demonstrate that family management ownership, generational involvement, and the presence of a family CEO hamper the family management-growth link: all these variables attenuate the positive effect of low to moderate family management, and accentuate the negative impact of high family management. Consequently, our research contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between family management and growth.
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