IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/maorev/v21y2025i4p695-727_5.html

Family Ownership and Digital Transformation: The Role of Family Formal Business Networks and Next-Generation Dispersion

Author

Listed:
  • Ko, Wai Wai
  • Chen, Shihui
  • Liu, Gordon
  • Wu, Bingde
  • Jiang, Nan

Abstract

Digital transformation presents a crucial strategic imperative for family businesses seeking to maintain competitiveness and long-term viability. The academic literature reveals divergent perspectives on how family businesses approach digital transformation initiatives. This study adopts a socioemotional wealth perspective to examine the relationship between family ownership and digital transformation. The research specifically investigates how family formal business networks and next-generation dispersion moderate this relationship. Analysis of panel data from Chinese listed family firms between 2016 and 2020 reveals that family ownership negatively influences digital transformation efforts. However, this negative effect diminishes when family firms participate in formal business networks or involve multiple next-generation members in leadership positions. These findings yield important theoretical contributions regarding the intricate relationships between family dynamics and technological advancement. The research also provides practical insights for family business leaders navigating digital transformation challenges. This study advances understanding of how different dimensions of socioemotional wealth shape family firms’ strategic responses to technological change.

Suggested Citation

  • Ko, Wai Wai & Chen, Shihui & Liu, Gordon & Wu, Bingde & Jiang, Nan, 2025. "Family Ownership and Digital Transformation: The Role of Family Formal Business Networks and Next-Generation Dispersion," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 695-727, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:maorev:v:21:y:2025:i:4:p:695-727_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1740877625100776/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:cup:maorev:v:21:y:2025:i:4:p:695-727_5. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/mor .

    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.