Family firm performance through transformational CEO leadership and familiness-related team forces

  • Carolin Neffe
  • , Celeste Wilderom
  • , Frank Lattuch*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the role of familiness-related team forces induced by the CEO of family firms. In particular, we report on the effects of the transformational leadership style of CEOs on their respective top-management team (TMT) and firm performance when viewed through a familiness lens. Design/methodology/approach: Survey measures were taken from a snowballed sample of 72 CEOs of German family firms as well as from 245 members of their TMTs. We tested the aggregated firm-level data with objective performance indicators of the firms they led. Findings: Support was obtained for the three hypothesized team-force mediations and the four-path mediation model. The relationship between CEO’s transformational style and high family-firm performance is found to be serially mediated by TMT cohesion, behavioral integration and efficacy. Together, these three types of collective forces are assumed to be the familiness effect of a family-member CEO with a transformational leadership style. Originality/value: With our model, we quantitatively tested familiness-type forces vis-à-vis firm performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)992-1010
Number of pages19
JournalLeadership and Organization Development Journal
Volume45
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Jul 2024

Keywords

  • n/a OA procedure
  • CEO transformational leadership style
  • Cohesion
  • Efficacy
  • Family firms
  • Top-management team (TMT)
  • Behavioral integration

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