Home-region focus and performance of family firms: The role of family vs non-family leaders

Do family firms benefit more from a regional or a global geographic scope? We suggest it depends on their family leadership type - family vs non-family leadership. We offer a nuanced view of agency and stewardship theories to hypothesize that family leaders are most beneficial when pursuing a regional strategy (i.e., high home-region focus (HRF)), whereas non-family leaders are more advantageous when pursing a global strategy (i.e., low HRF). Utilizing a sample of 202 Western European firms from 1996 to 2006, we find support for this central hypothesis. Thus family leadership influences the degree to which family firms benefit from HRF. Journal of International Business Studies (2011) 42, 1060-1072. doi:10.1057/jibs.2011.28