Open Access
Enhancing innovation through ESG practices: the superior impact on family businesses
(Emerald, 2025-02-24) Barguilla Sanclaudio, Maite; Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Salazar Morales, Iván Alfredo; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Purpose: This work contributes to the debate on the link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and firm innovation, incorporating ownership structure as a moderating variable. Design/methodology/approach: This research uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to analyse the impact of ESG criteria on innovation, considering firm ownership as a catalyst that strengthens the effect of environmental and social practices on innovative performance. Findings: Family-owned firms, with their unique characteristics like long-term orientation and commitment to family values, strengthen the relationship between environmental and social practices and innovation performance. This suggests that such firms are better positioned to leverage their corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments and activities. Practical implications: The findings offer valuable insights for decision-making in organizations, particularly family firms focused on innovation and sustainability. The research shows that investing in sustainability practices not only ensures ESG compliance but also significantly fosters innovation. Originality/value: This study contributes to the debate regarding the relationship between ESG criteria and firm innovative performance. It highlights how the implementation of ESG practices influences innovation, and particularly how firm ownership further enhances the relationship between environmental and social practices and firm innovative performance.
Open Access
How important is family involvement for small companies’ growth?
(Emerald, 2020) Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; García Olaverri, Carmen; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas
Purpose: Our paper seeks to further understand how family involvement in management influences firm growth. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of small high-tech firms, we classify three different types of firms: family firms managed by family-CEOs, family firms managed by non-family CEOs and non-family firms. Findings: Consistent with our expectations, we show that firms managed by family-CEOs have less firm growth in comparison with the other two groups. When the family firm is managed by non-family CEOs, the presence of another family member in management positions has a negative impact on firm growth. Finally, we found that founder-led family firms have better firm growth than descendant-led family firms. Research limitations/implications: Implications for the theory of family firms are discussed. Originality/value: The value of the present study is to analyse in depth the heterogeneity of the family business trying to close the gap by exploring the effect of family involvement on small firm growth. Thus, we will find different behaviours of these family companies, depending on the family member’s presence in management positions.
Open Access
The role of female directors in family firms' annual report's readability
(Emerald, 2024) Abinzano Guillén, María Isabel; Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Martínez García, Beatriz; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Purpose: this paper investigates the impact of board gender diversity on the readability of the annual reports of family-controlled public companies. Design/methodology/approach: grounded in the premises of the restricted and extended views of the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach and executive power theory, this paper explores the ways in which family-affiliated female directors influence report readability in a sample of 133 publicly traded US companies listed in the Fortune 1,000. We use the system GMM estimator, which deals with two key sources of endogeneity by controlling first for reverse causality, using the lags of the endogenous variables as instruments, and then for omitted variables, capturing the individual effect. Findings: our analysis confirms that the significant enhancement in annual report readability is associated with the presence of female family directors, particularly those who are insiders within the company. In contrast, non-family female directors and family outsider directors appear to have a negative impact on annual report readability. Originality/value: while scholars have increasingly focused on variations in annual report readability among family firms, the contribution of female directors to this phenomenon has received minimal attention. In our study, we integrate the theories of restricted and extended SEW perspectives with the theory of women's executive power within the board. This integration is essential for considering two critical factors: firstly, the primacy of their SEW objectives, and, secondly, their legitimacy within the board.
Embargo
Editorial note: heterogeneity in management and governance in family firms
(Elsevier, 2023) Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Heterogeneity within family firms has emerged as a pivotal area of research interest. This special edition of The Journal of High Technology Management Research makes a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge on the diversity found within family-run enterprises, with a specific emphasis on the variances in governance and management structures. In this introductory piece, the proposition is put forth that family governance, encompassing both ownership and management, alongside the decisions guiding governance practices, plays a pivotal role in driving diversity within family businesses. This exploration delves into multiple facets of heterogeneity within family firms. The subsequent content of this issue comprises four studies that illuminate the impact of governance on diverse aspects, including the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, innovation in products and processes, strategic maneuvers, and the distinctive governance structures prevalent in Latin American family businesses. Furthermore, this discourse extends beyond the findings presented in these studies by delving into uncharted realms of research, focusing on the disparities evident in the contextual settings and governance mechanisms adopted by different family firms.
Open Access
The role of entrepreneurial orientation and family control of the firm in the economic recovery of underperforming firms
(Emerald, 2019) Capelleras Segura, Joan Lluís; Contín Pilart, Ignacio; Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Larraza Kintana, Martín; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas
Objetivo – El artículo analiza cómo la orientación emprendedora y el control familiar de la empresa influyen en el desempeño de las empresas con bajo rendimiento y cómo contribuyen a su recuperación económica. Diseño/metodología/enfoque – Testamos nuestras hipótesis utilizando una muestra única y representativa de 1,500 pequeñas empresas españolas en industrias de fabricación y servicios de alta y media tecnología. Dada la naturaleza de nuestra variable dependiente, estimamos una serie de modelos de regresión para probar nuestras hipótesis. Además, consideramos dos términos de interacción donde la variable de las empresas de bajo rendimiento interactúa con las empresas familiares y la orientación emprendedora. Hallazgos – Los resultados de nuestros análisis muestran que las empresas con mayor orientación emprendedora y cuya propiedad sea familiar aumentan, por separado, el rendimiento posterior de las empresas, especialmente para las de bajo rendimiento. Originalidad/valor – El estudio contribuye a expandir la literatura sobre las empresas con bajo rendimiento al analizar cómo los factores estratégicos y estructurales impactan en el desempeño de las empresas que enfrentan una recesión económica. También brinda orientación a los profesionales sobre la decisión y los contextos que mejor sirven para la recuperación económica de las empresas con bajo rendimiento.
Open Access
When do women make a better table? Examining the influence of women directors on family firm's corporate social performance
(SAGE Publications, 2019) Cruz, Cristina; Justo, Rachida; Larraza Kintana, Martín; Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas
Our paper seeks to further understand the influence of gender board diversity on firms' corporate social performance (CPS) in the context of publicly held family firms. Grounded on corporate governance and family firm literature, we argue that the influence of women directors on CSP will be contingent on their relative power and legitimacy within the board, and that such dynamics are particularly important in family firm boardrooms. Our empirical results show that increases in CSP associated with the presence of women in the boards of family firms are due mainly to the presence of outsider nonfamily and insider family women directors. Implications for the theory of family firms are discussed.
Open Access
Are family firms really more socially responsible?
(SAGE, 2014) Cruz, Cristina; Larraza Kintana, Martín; Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Berrone, Pascual; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
This paper conducts an empirical study as to whether family firms are more socially responsible than their non-family counterparts, and explores the conditions in which this difference in social behavior occurs. We argue that family firms, given their socioemotional wealth bias, have a positive effect on social dimensions linked to external stakeholders, yet have a negative impact on internal social dimensions. Thus, family firms can be socially responsible and irresponsible at the same time. We also suggest that institutional and organizational conditions act as catalysts in the relationship between firm type and CSR. General support for our thesis that family firms neglect internal social dimensions came from the study of a sample of 598 listed European firms over a period of 4 years. Moreover, while national standards and industry conditions influence the degree of CSR in non-family firms, these factors do not affect family firms. However, family firms’ social activities are more sensitive to declining organizational performance.
Open Access
Absorptive capacity in family firms: exploring the role of the CEO
(Emerald, 2024) Garcés Galdeano, Lucía; Kotlar, Josip; Caicedo Leitón, Ana Lucía; Larraza Kintana, Martín; Frattini, Federico; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Purpose: Absorptive capacity (AC), the ability to leverage external knowledge for innovation, helps explain the mixed findings on family firms' innovation performance. Our research focuses on the CEO's role - whether family or non-family, and founding or later generation - in influencing AC. We also explore how firm size and environmental dynamism affect these relationships, offering insights into varying AC levels among family firms. Design/methodology/approach: OLS regression models were estimated to test the hypotheses using a sample of 364 family firms in Spain. Findings: Family firms¿ absorptive capacity is greater when the CEO is a family member, and even more so when the family CEO belongs to the founding family generation. While AC diminishes in larger family firms this effect is mitigated when the CEO is a family member. The predicted moderating effect of environmental dynamisms is not supported by the analyses. Originality: This paper adds insights about the drivers of heterogeneity in innovation among family firms, addressing recent calls for more nuanced views of how family members drive the strategic behavior of the business, and incorporating considerations of different types of family firms based on the identity of the firm CEO. The results overall support the theoretical claims, but also open up important questions for future studies.