IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ejimpp/ejim-01-2021-0068.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of founder reign in explaining family firms' R&D investment: evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Xi Zhong
  • Tiebo Song
  • Liuyang Ren

Abstract

Purpose - Based on the socioemotional wealth theory, this study aims to empirically investigate how founder reign, that is a founder serving as a cheif executive officer (CEO) or chairman, influences family firms' research and development (R&D) investment in emerging economies (e.g. China). Design/methodology/approach - This study empirically tested the hypotheses based on a sample of listed Chinese family companies from 2008 to 2018. Findings - Founder reign has a negative impact on family firms' R&D investment. Particularly, the negative impact of the founder serving as chairman on family firms' R&D investment is larger than the negative impact of the founder serving as CEO on family firms' R&D investment. Founder's military experience weakens the negative impact of founder reign on family firms' R&D investment, but founder's executive master of business administration (E)MBA experience has no moderating effect on this relationship. Originality/value - First, the authors contribute to the family firm innovation literature by providing an alternative but complementary explanation of why family firms have relatively low R&D investment levels. This research shows that founder reign is a key reason for family firms in China eschewing R&D investment. Second, by incorporating the founder serving as CEO and the founder serving as chairman into the analytical framework, and then examining their impact on family firms' R&D investment, our research helps us to fully understand the impact of founder reign on firm strategic actions. Third, we contribute to the “founder reign-firm strategic actions” framework by revealing how founders' human capital profoundly affects the relationship between founder reign and family firms' R&D investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Xi Zhong & Tiebo Song & Liuyang Ren, 2021. "The role of founder reign in explaining family firms' R&D investment: evidence from China," European Journal of Innovation Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(2), pages 422-445, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:ejimpp:ejim-01-2021-0068
    DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-01-2021-0068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJIM-01-2021-0068/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJIM-01-2021-0068/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/EJIM-01-2021-0068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:ejimpp:ejim-01-2021-0068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.