Internationalization-Performance Relationship of Family Firms: The Moderating Role of Familyness

Despite the growth in family firm (FF) research we hardly know how internationalization (I) impacts performance (P) of FFs, and how the familyness within FFs shape their IP relationship. Drawing on IB and FF literatures, we theorize in this study how two important sources of heterogeneity—extent of family ownership and involvement of CEO (family versus professional; founder versus non-founder)—moderate FFs’ IP relationship. Our empirical analysis of data from India suggests that FFs’ IP relationship is negative, but the extent of family ownership and involvement of professional CEO and founder CEO positively influences this relationship. Our results also demonstrate that involvement of family CEO and non-founder CEO casts a negative moderating influence on FFs’ IP relationship. Our results further provide evidence that FFs’ IP relationship is positively moderated when family CEOs possess international experience. Our study contributes to the IB and FF literature in multiple ways.