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J Bus Ethics (2016) 136:639654 DOI 10.1007/s10551-015-2538-z
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10551-015-2538-z&domain=pdf
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Web End = Family Control, Socioemotional Wealth, and Governance Environment: The Case of Bribes
Shujun Ding Baozhi Qu Zhenyu Wu
Received: 22 August 2012 / Accepted: 14 November 2014 / Published online: 10 January 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract This study examines the relationship between family control and young entrepreneurial rms bribing behavior around the globe. Relying on over 2,000 young rms from the World Bank Environment Survey, we nd that family control helps to reduce a rms bribery behavior, but further investigation shows that this effect only exists in countries with weaker macro-governance environment. In countries with more established and transparent governance mechanism, family control does not seem to make any difference. We interpret our ndings as the business familys preservation of socioemotional wealth.
Keywords Bribe Family control New entrepreneurial
rms Governance environment Socioemotional wealth
JEL Classication G34 L20 L26 K42
Introduction
A growing body of literature has examined family involvement in affecting a rms management, behavior, and performance.1 The effect of family involvement is investigated across a variety of academic elds, such as entrepreneurship, corporate governance, accounting, nance, international business, and management, among others; both privately held and publicly listed family-controlled rms are examined in different jurisdictions.2 Different perspectives notwithstanding, all these studies pinpoint the importance of examining family involvement as a unique ownership and governance structure that impacts rm behavior and corporate decision making. A variety of predictable effects result from the above studies, both economic and social. Our research examines the association between young entrepreneurial rms bribery3
S. DingTelfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canadae-mail: [email protected]
B. QuChina Merchants Group, and University of International Business and Economics, Shenzhen, Chinae-mail: [email protected]
Z. Wu (&)
Canada Research Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canadae-mail: [email protected]
1 For the relevant research, see Anderson et al. (2003), Anderson and Reeb (2003), Burkart et al. (2003), Fernandez and Nieto (2006), Chrisman et al. (2004), Carney (2005), Le Breton-Miller and Miller (2006), Villalonga and Amit (2006), Wu et al. (2007), and Chua et al. (2011), among others.
2 For instance, Ali et al. (2007) analyze the typical agency problems faced by family-controlled...