Determining what factors influence firm performance constitutes an essential issue in both the management and the family firm research fields. This article, building on the resource-based view perspective, develops a mediation model that involves a unique intervening mechanism, namely, technological innovation efficiency (TI efficiency), with the potential to explain the inconsistencies found in prior work on the ways through which family involvement in management affects performance outcomes. Regression analyses utilizing a longitudinal sample of 1,118 Spanish private firms largely support the hypothesized mediating relationship, revealing that TI efficiency leads to richer firm performance in family firms with active family involvement in management. Overall, our findings help elucidate the black box of performance outcomes within family firms and make several contributions to theory and practice. JEL CLASSIFICATION L25; M12; O32

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of the CEO's financial literacy on family SMEs' growth, as well as the moderating role of the generational stage on this relationship.Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on survey data of Spanish private family firms and utilizes a second source of data, the SABI database by Bureau Van Dijk. The authors run ordinary least squares regressions and use both the base and the partition approaches to test the hypotheses.Findings: The analysis reveals a positive association between the CEO's financial literacy and firm growth. However, this relationship is not uniform across generations. The CEO's financial literacy-firm growth relationship becomes weaker for first- and third or subsequent-generation family firms while becoming stronger for second-generation family firms.Originality/value: This study adds the financial literacy of the CEO as a novel individual-level determinant of family firm growth. It also shows that CEOs do not always use their financial literacy to its full potential to foster growth. More specifically, the extent to which financial literacy leads to firm growth is found to be conditional on the generational stage of the family SME. The obtained findings are valuable for family SMEs intending to hire a new CEO, encouraging the financial literacy of the current CEO and educating the next generation of family members.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer new insights regarding an issue that has attracted the interest of multitude academics and practitioners in business management and family firm literature: technological innovation (TI). Specifically, this study brings new knowledge regarding both the impact of TI efficiency on firm growth and the moderating role of family involvement in management on such relationship.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a matched-pairs design and an ordinary least squares regression analysis to examine a sample of 152 Spanish manufacturing firms.Findings: First, the authors show that firms obtaining higher TI efficiency are also those that achieve superior growth. Second, the authors reveal that as family involvement in management increases, the positive effect that TI efficiency exerts on firm growth is strengthened.Practical implications: This study suggests that family managers should essentially consider various aspects such as tacit knowledge, social capital and long-standing collaborations with stakeholders to reinforce the relationship between TI efficiency and firm growth.Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyses the effect of TI efficiency on firm growth, as well as, when and to what extent family involvement in management influences the TI efficiency–growth relationship. Thus, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the importance that family managers could have on firm growth deriving from TI efficiency.