The influence of family-related factors on intellectual capital performance in family businesses

This study explores the impact of family-related factors on intellectual capital (IC) performance. Leveraging hand-collected data from a sample of 85 Italian listed family companies during the period 2015-2017 (255 firm-year observations), we investigate whether three main family-related factors, i.e. family involvement in ownership, family leadership and the generational stage, affect IC performance. Based on the resource-based view and prior literature we assume that all these three family-related factors enhance IC performance. The results confirm our predictions and provide evidence that family firms managed by a family leader and with a higher level of family involvement in ownership exhibit a greater IC performance. Moreover, the later generational stage of the family business is found to be positively related to IC performance. These results enrich the extant literature by introducing two main determinants of IC performance, i.e. family leadership and the generational stage.