Examining the Impact of Family Management on Patent Applications for German Industrial Firms

Elaborating the innovation behavior of family-owned businesses, prior research primary focused on the impact of ownership structure on innovation. However, surprisingly little attention has been given to understand the role of family management in this context. Our study contributes to literature closing this research gap. Using the number of applied patents as proxy for R&D outcome, our findings show that family management affects R&D output negatively. The empirical results of the study are in line with expectations drawn from agency and stewardship perspectives supposing substantial differences in research and development strategies of family and non-family managers.