Family involvement in ownership, management, and firm performance: Moderating and direct-effect models

Abstract

This study aims to provide an empirical evidence on the moderating effect of family involvement in management (family CEO and founder CEO) on the relationship between family ownership and firm's performance. From a sample of 75 public listed companies (375 firm-year observations) in Saudi Arabia, we use a five-year interval (2007-2011) and two firm performance indicators (market to book value (MBV) and return on assets (ROA)) to test five hypotheses. The hypotheses that there is a direct impact of family ownership and founder CEO on ROA and MBV were supported respectively. The hypothetical moderating impact of family CEO and founder CEO have been partially confirmed with MBV. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of occupying CEO positions in family firms by family members, especially the founders for gaining better performance. However, the results are robust when only family firms are examined separately.