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Can Family Members’ Involvement Improve Technological Innovation? Empirical Study Based on Chinese Family-Owned Enterprises

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  • Lingling Zhuang

    (Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China)

  • Lawrence Loh

    (Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117592, Singapore
    Department of Strategy and Policy, Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119245, Singapore)

  • Minna Zheng

    (Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China)

Abstract

From the perspective of agency theory, family members’ involvement is negatively correlated with technological innovation. However, from the perspective of stewardship theory, it is believed that family members’ involvement is positively correlated with technological innovation. From the phenomenon mentioned above, this paper studies the influence of family members’ involvement on R&D investment and R&D output and tests the above competitive hypotheses. Based on the 2007–2016 data of A-share listed family-owned enterprises, this empirical study found that family members involved in corporate management not only save R&D investment, but they also increase R&D output. After controlling for endogeneity, the above conclusions are still valid. This study provides empirical evidence for the objective recognition of the relationship between family members’ involvement and technological innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lingling Zhuang & Lawrence Loh & Minna Zheng, 2020. "Can Family Members’ Involvement Improve Technological Innovation? Empirical Study Based on Chinese Family-Owned Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10508-:d:462674
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    References listed on IDEAS

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