IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/asiapa/v30y2013i3p677-695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does family involvement affect innovation in China?

Author

Listed:
  • Qiang Liang
  • Xinchun Li
  • Xueru Yang
  • Danming Lin
  • Danhui Zheng

Abstract

This paper explores the types of family involvement in family firms and their impact on innovation performance. Drawing from our agency theoretical analysis on the structure of boards of directors and management teams and along with the resource-based view, we advance the novel proposition that what matters in the innovation process is the type of family involvement, not involvement per se. The empirical study on a sample of 102 listed family firms in China from 2005 to 2007 suggests that family involvement in boards tends to strengthen the positive relationship between R&D investment and innovation performance, whereas family involvement in management teams tends to weaken this positive relationship. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Qiang Liang & Xinchun Li & Xueru Yang & Danming Lin & Danhui Zheng, 2013. "How does family involvement affect innovation in China?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 677-695, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:asiapa:v:30:y:2013:i:3:p:677-695
    DOI: 10.1007/s10490-012-9320-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10490-012-9320-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10490-012-9320-x?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kimberly A. Eddleston & Franz Willi Kellermanns & Ravi Sarathy, 2008. "Resource Configuration in Family Firms: Linking Resources, Strategic Planning and Technological Opportunities to Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 26-50, January.
    2. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Agency Problems and Residual Claims," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 327-349, June.
    3. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2000. "Investor protection and corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 3-27.
    4. Roger H. Ford, 1988. "Outside Directors and the Privately-Owned Firm: Are They Necessary?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 13(1), pages 49-57, October.
    5. Shiferaw Gurmu & Fidel Pérez-Sebastián, 2008. "Patents, R&D and lag effects: evidence from flexible methods for count panel data on manufacturing firms," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 507-526, November.
    6. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    7. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Baysinger, Barry D & Butler, Henry N, 1985. "Corporate Governance and the Board of Directors: Performance Effects of Changes in Board Composition," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 101-124, Spring.
    9. Shaker A. Zahra & Igor Filatotchev, 2004. "Governance of the Entrepreneurial Threshold Firm: A Knowledge‐based Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 885-897, July.
    10. Zahra, Shaker A. & Neubaum, Donald O. & Larraneta, Barbara, 2007. "Knowledge sharing and technological capabilities: The moderating role of family involvement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 1070-1079, October.
    11. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    12. William S. Schulze & Michael H. Lubatkin & Richard N. Dino, 2002. "Altruism, agency, and the competitiveness of family firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4-5), pages 247-259.
    13. Habbershon, Timothy G. & Williams, Mary & MacMillan, Ian C., 2003. "A unified systems perspective of family firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 451-465, July.
    14. Stark, Oded, 1989. "Altruism and the Quality of Life," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 86-90, May.
    15. Gautam Ahuja & Curba Morris Lampert, 2001. "Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 521-543, June.
    16. Jess H. Chua & James J. Chrisman & Erich B. Bergiel, 2009. "An Agency Theoretic Analysis of the Professionalized Family Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(2), pages 355-372, March.
    17. Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung, 2003. "Agency Problems in Large Family Business Groups," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(4), pages 367-382, October.
    18. Miozzo, Marcela & Dewick, Paul, 2002. "Building competitive advantage: innovation and corporate governance in European construction," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 989-1008, August.
    19. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Lloyd Steier, 2005. "Sources and Consequences of Distinctive Familiness: An Introduction," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(3), pages 237-247, May.
    20. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:3:p:1301-1327 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Bernheim, B Douglas & Stark, Oded, 1988. "Altruism within the Family Reconsidered: Do Nice Guys Finish Last?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1034-1045, December.
    22. Michael Lubatkin & William S. Schulze & Richard N. Dino, 2002. "Altruism, Agency and the Competitiveness of Family Firms," Post-Print hal-02311705, HAL.
    23. Wang, Peiming, 2003. "A bivariate zero-inflated negative binomial regression model for count data with excess zeros," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 373-378, March.
    24. Francis, Jennifer & Smith, Abbie, 1995. "Agency costs and innovation some empirical evidence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 383-409, April.
    25. Neri Karra & Paul Tracey & Nelson Phillips, 2006. "Altruism and Agency in the Family Firm: Exploring the Role of Family, Kinship, and Ethnicity," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(6), pages 861-877, November.
    26. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding‐Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1328, June.
    27. Pramodita Sharma, 2008. "Commentary: Familiness: Capital Stocks and Flows between Family and Business," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 32(6), pages 971-977, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guidice, Rebecca M. & Mero, Neal P. & Greene, Juanne V., 2013. "Perceptions of accountability in family business: Using accountability theory to understand differences between family and nonfamily executives," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 233-244.
    2. Asma Fattoum-Guedri & Zied Guedri & Frédéric Delmar, 2018. "Multiple Blockholder Structures and Family Firm Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(2), pages 231-251, March.
    3. Basco, Rodrigo, 2013. "The family's effect on family firm performance: A model testing the demographic and essence approaches," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 42-66.
    4. Wright, Mike & Kellermanns, Franz W., 2011. "Family firms: A research agenda and publication guide," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 187-198.
    5. Matthias Filser & Alexander Brem & Johanna Gast & Sascha Kraus & Andrea Calabrò, 2016. "Innovation In Family Firms — Examining The Inventory And Mapping The Path," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(06), pages 1-39, August.
    6. Barontini, Roberto & Bozzi, Stefano, 2018. "Family firm heterogeneity and CEO compensation in Continental Europe," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-18.
    7. Daspit, Joshua J. & Long, Rebecca G. & Pearson, Allison W., 2019. "How familiness affects innovation outcomes via absorptive capacity: A dynamic capability perspective of the family firm," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 133-143.
    8. McGuire, Jean & Dow, Sandra & Ibrahim, Bakr, 2012. "All in the family? Social performance and corporate governance in the family firm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 1643-1650.
    9. Julian Schenkenhofer, 2022. "Hidden champions: a review of the literature & future research avenues," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(2), pages 417-482, June.
    10. Astrachan, Joseph H., 2010. "Strategy in family business: Toward a multidimensional research agenda," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 6-14, March.
    11. Kim, Y. & Gao, F.Y., 2013. "Does family involvement increase business performance? Family-longevity goals’ moderating role in Chinese family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 265-274.
    12. Alessandro Minichilli & Guido Corbetta & Ian C. MacMillan, 2010. "Top Management Teams in Family‐Controlled Companies: ‘Familiness’, ‘Faultlines’, and Their Impact on Financial Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 205-222, March.
    13. Munari, Federico & Oriani, Raffaele & Sobrero, Maurizio, 2010. "The effects of owner identity and external governance systems on R&D investments: A study of Western European firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1093-1104, October.
    14. Esra Memili & Kaustav Misra, 2015. "Corporate Governance Provisions, Family Involvement, and Firm Performance in Publicly Traded Family Firms," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-36, July.
    15. Ferramosca, Silvia & Allegrini, Marco, 2018. "The complex role of family involvement in earnings management," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 128-141.
    16. Liew, Chee Yoong & Ko, Young Kyung & Song, Bee Lian & Murthy, Saraniah Thechina, 2019. "Directors’ remuneration, expropriation and firm performance in Malaysia: evidence from non-executive directors’ service duration within the remuneration committee," MPRA Paper 99703, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Islam, Nazrul & Wang, Qidong & Marinakis, Yorgos & Walsh, Steven, 2022. "Family enterprise and technological innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 208-221.
    18. Muhammad Arsalan Hashmi & Abdullah & Rayenda Khresna Brahmana, 2022. "Family monitoring and the adverse consequences of political connections: does it vary over family generations?," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(6), pages 832-851, September.
    19. Patel, Pankaj C. & Kim, Kyoung Yong & Devaraj, Srikant & Li, Mingxiang, 2018. "Family Ties that B(l)ind: Do Family-Owned Franchisees Have Lower Financial Performance than Nonfamily-Owned Franchisees?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 231-245.
    20. García-Ramos, Rebeca & García-Olalla, Myriam, 2011. "Board characteristics and firm performance in public founder- and nonfounder-led family businesses," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 220-231.

    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:kap:asiapa:v:30:y:2013:i:3:p:677-695. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.