Power Distribution,Family Power And Firm Performance In Family Business:from The Family Perspective

Based on theoretical review of family business researches and practical observation of family businesses, this article focuses on one of the core issues of family governance—power from the perspective of family, which lacks in family business study.Different from the traditional family business governance research focusing on "power to performance", this article extends the logic chain. Firstly, the author deconstructs "family" to explore the relationship between characteristics of family members and their powers at the individual level. Then, through polymerization of personal power of all family members involved in family business, the author goes back to the family and business level to explore the effects of family powers on firm performance. Thus, the article enriches the research context focused on family power.This article conducts an empirical research of the family enterprises listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China and finds:(1) The kinship between family members and family businesses’owners has a significant effect on the distribution of the absolute individual power. Besides, demographic characteristics-such as age, gender, education, tenure-also affect the distribution of absolute power.(2) Take the owner as a reference, the distribution of power presents a differential pattern based on the proximity of the genetic relationship; the kinship has a moderating effect on the configuration of relatives’ differential order of power. The differences of characteristic between family members and owners rather than the basic characteristics play an influential role on the configuration of the relative power.(3) Family ownership and family control have a positive effect on performance of family business.The theoretical contributions of this article are as follows:Firstly, tries to explain the configuration mechanism of power from the microscopic family perspective, and complements researches of this field in both perspectives and context. Secondly, introduces the concept of relative power, explores the mechanism of configuration of power centered on the owner, and provides theoretical thinking on the critical role of owners and power distribution. Thirdly, introduces the familiness of executive team to measure the management power to study the effect of family power on performance, which is a beneficial multi disciplinary try. What’s more, this study provides new ideas and suggestions for the family business governance.