Ambidexterity in family firms: The interplay between family influences within and beyond the executive suite

Family CEO affect and R&D investments of family firms: The moderation effect of family ownership structure

“…Drawing on this distinction, we contribute to the role of family ownership structure in R&D investments by considering the ownership of CEOs, their family branch, and other family branches as a driver of ability. Our findings also complement studies (e.g., Van Doorn et al, 2020) suggesting that family ownership dispersion among family branches may be an underemphasized dimension of the influence of CEO discretion in family firms. In a broader perspective, our study also contributes to research exploring the sources of family firm heterogeneity (Daspit et al, 2021).…”

“…These ability and willingness arguments suggest that family ownership may have a moderating role rather than a direct effect on R&D investments. This approach is in line with studies considering the moderating role of ownership on family firm innovation behavior (Sánchez-Famoso et al, 2019;Van Doorn et al, 2020), particularly in the relationship between CEO characteristics and the innovation investments of family firms (Kraiczy et al, 2015).…”

“…The arguments on the role of family ownership on innovation inputs do not usually consider that family owners may not be a homogeneous group and the incentives and motives to monitor family managers might vary (Van Doorn et al, 2020), thus overlooking the important heterogeneous effects of the family on family business innovation (De Massis et al, 2015;Rondi et al, 2019). According to De , the heterogeneity of family firms regarding innovation may be explained by two key drivers: the family's willingness and the family's ability.…”

“…However, due to more distant personal connections, relationships among different branches tend to be more combative than among members of the same family branch (Gersick et al, 1997). The other family branches may feel that the family CEO prioritizes his/her family branch instead of the family as a whole (Michiels et al, 2015;Yoshikawa and Rasheed, 2010;Van Doorn et al, 2020). For these reasons, the other family branches may monitor the CEO's decisions and mitigate his/her discretion over R&D decisions (Kraiczy et al, 2015;Wangrow et al, 2015).…”

Review of Organizational Ambidexterity Research

“…However, Raisch and Birkinshaw (2008) have also mentioned in their study that at a first glance, ambidexterity antecedents, moderators, and environmental factors have been conceptualized as the most significant agents that have a major impact on ambidexterity. However, more in depth studies have revealed that there are also other important elements affecting the interrelations between the internal factors (Junni et al, 2015), such as the top team’s strategic intent (Andriopoulos & Lewis, 2009), leadership vision and values (Koryak et al, 2018; O’Reilly & Tushman, 2008), and an aligned senior team with the ability to manage ambidexterity (Chandrasekaran et al, 2012; Garcia-Granero et al, 2018; Heyden et al, 2018; Van Doorn et al, 2020).…”