IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/52391.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

'The employees are all equal... but some are more equals than others'. Altruism, opportunism and discrimination in family SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Ferrari, Filippo

Abstract

This article provides empirical evidence to support the Agency Theory as applied to small and medium-sized family firms. The research, conducted on a sample of SMEs (N = 88), has investigated the main elements of the Agency Theory ( type of contract, agent autonomy, mechanisms of resource distribution, the match between job assignment and worker skills, the overall level of perceived organizational justice), using a qualitative method. The literature suggests that altruism of the Principal as a parent and widespread opportunistic behavior by the Agent are confirmed phenomena typical of family SMEs. In addition, the research highlights the implications in terms of agency costs and perceived organizational justice on the part of employees who are not members of the family

Suggested Citation

  • Ferrari, Filippo, 2013. "'The employees are all equal... but some are more equals than others'. Altruism, opportunism and discrimination in family SMEs," MPRA Paper 52391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:52391
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/52391/1/MPRA_paper_52391.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thaler, Richard H & Shefrin, H M, 1981. "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(2), pages 392-406, April.
    2. Andrea Bassanini & Thomas Breda & Eve Caroli & Antoine Rebérioux, 2010. "Working in family firms: less paid but more secure? Evidence from French matched employer-employee data," Working Papers halshs-00564972, HAL.
    3. Pieper, Torsten M., 2010. "Non solus: Toward a psychology of family business," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 26-39, March.
    4. 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.
    5. Chrisman, James J. & Chua, Jess H. & Kellermanns, Franz W. & Chang, Erick P.C., 2007. "Are family managers agents or stewards? An exploratory study in privately held family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 1030-1038, October.
    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. Ross, Stephen A, 1973. "The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal's Problem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(2), pages 134-139, May.
    8. William S. Schulze & Michael H. Lubatkin & Richard N. Dino & Ann K. Buchholtz, 2001. "Agency Relationships in Family Firms: Theory and Evidence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 99-116, April.
    9. 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.
    10. Bergstrom, Theodore C, 1989. "A Fresh Look at the Rotten Kid Theorem--and Other Household Mysteries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1138-1159, October.
    11. Mitchell, Ronald K. & Morse, Eric A. & Sharma, Pramodita, 2003. "The transacting cognitions of nonfamily employees in the family businesses setting," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 533-551, July.
    12. Rodolphe Durand & Michael H. Lubatkin & Yan Ling, 2007. "The Missing Lens in Family Firm Governance Theory: A Self-Other Typology of Parental Altruism," Post-Print hal-00699185, HAL.
    13. Tim Barnett & Franz W. Kellermanns, 2006. "Are We Family and Are We Treated as Family? Nonfamily Employees’ Perceptions of Justice in the Family Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(6), pages 837-854, November.
    14. Isabelle Huault & V. Perret & S. Charreire-Petit, 2007. "Management," Post-Print halshs-00337676, HAL.
    15. Cohen-Charash, Yochi & Spector, Paul E., 2001. "The Role of Justice in Organizations: A Meta-Analysis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 278-321, November.
    16. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1.
    17. Sieger, Philipp & Bernhard, Fabian & Frey, Urs, 2011. "Affective commitment and job satisfaction among non-family employees: Investigating the roles of justice perceptions and psychological ownership," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 78-89, June.
    18. Louise M. Kelly & Nicholas Athanassiou & William F. Crittenden, 2000. "Founder Centrality and Strategic Behavior in the Family-Owned Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 25(2), pages 27-42, December.
    19. Lubatkin, Michael H. & Durand, Rodolphe & Ling, Yan, 2007. "The missing lens in family firm governance theory: A self-other typology of parental altruism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 1022-1029, October.
    20. Morris, Michael H. & Williams, Roy O. & Allen, Jeffrey A. & Avila, Ramon A., 1997. "Correlates of success in family business transitions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 385-401, September.
    21. Paul Westhead & Marc Cowling, 1998. "Family Firm Research: The Need for a Methodological Rethink," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(1), pages 31-56, October.
    22. Randoy, Trond & Goel, Sanjay, 2003. "Ownership structure, founder leadership, and performance in Norwegian SMEs: implications for financing entrepreneurial opportunities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 619-637, September.
    23. Tim Barnett & Rebecca G. Long & Laura E. Marler, 2012. "Vision and Exchange in Intra–Family Succession: Effects on Procedural Justice Climate among Nonfamily Managers," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(6), pages 1207-1225, 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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Reddy, Krishna & Wellalage, Nirosha Hewa, 2023. "Effects of family ownership and family management on the performance of entrepreneurial firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Pieper, Torsten M., 2010. "Non solus: Toward a psychology of family business," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 26-39, March.
    5. James J. Chrisman, 2019. "Stewardship Theory: Realism, Relevance, and Family Firm Governance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(6), pages 1051-1066, November.
    6. César Camisón-Zornoza & Beatriz Forés-Julián & Alba Puig-Denia & Sergio Camisón-Haba, 0. "Effects of ownership structure and corporate and family governance on dynamic capabilities in family firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-34.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. César Camisón-Zornoza & Beatriz Forés-Julián & Alba Puig-Denia & Sergio Camisón-Haba, 2020. "Effects of ownership structure and corporate and family governance on dynamic capabilities in family firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1393-1426, December.
    10. Pramodita Sharma & James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Lloyd P. Steier, 2020. "Family Firm Behavior From a Psychological Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(1), pages 3-19, January.
    11. Block, Joern H., 2012. "R&D investments in family and founder firms: An agency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 248-265.
    12. James J. Chrisman & Kristen Madison & Taewoo Kim, 2021. "A Dynamic Framework of Noneconomic Goals and Inter-Family Agency Complexities in Multi-Family Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(4), pages 906-930, July.
    13. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Pramodita Sharma, 2005. "Trends and Directions in the Development of a Strategic Management Theory of the Family Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(5), pages 555-575, September.
    14. Josip Kotlar & Philipp Sieger, 2019. "Bounded Rationality and Bounded Reliability: A Study of Nonfamily Managers’ Entrepreneurial Behavior in Family Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(2), pages 251-273, March.
    15. Dawson, Alexandra, 2011. "Private equity investment decisions in family firms: The role of human resources and agency costs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 189-199, March.
    16. Hiebl, Martin R.W., 2013. "Bean counter or strategist? Differences in the role of the CFO in family and non-family businesses," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 147-161.
    17. 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.
    18. M. Scholes & Mike Wright & Paul Westhead & Andrew Burrows & Hans Bruining, 2007. "Information Sharing, Price Negotiation and Management Buy-outs of Private Family-owned Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 329-349, October.
    19. Simon C. Parker, 2016. "Family Firms and the “Willing Successor†Problem," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(6), pages 1241-1259, November.
    20. Kowalik, Elena, 2023. "Ethical Problems in Family Firms," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 8(2), pages 431-452.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family Business; Agency Theory; Organizational justice; Opportunistic Behavior.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M1 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:52391. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.