Are Family Firms Doing More Innovation Output With Less Innovation Input? A Replication and Extension

The role of family firms in innovation and the question of whether family firms show differences in innovation investments and outcomes are intensely debated. To address these issues, Duran, Kammerlander, van Essen, and Zellweger (2016) published a meta-analytic structural equation model showing that family firms produce more innovation output with less innovation input. In the present article, we present the results of two empirical studies. Study 1 replicates the original methodological approach and study 2 provides an extension by using an updated and enlarged sample of 290 papers, adopting a more advanced multilevel approach, and controlling for firm age. The results show that while we could successfully replicate the original results of DKEZ in study 1, study 2 revealed only a weak negative effect of family firm status on innovation input and no effect on innovation output. Our results suggest that family firms are not producing more innovation output with less innovation input and that further research should focus on the heterogeneity within the group of family firms rather than simply comparing family to nonfamily firms. We close with a discussion of the methodological implications for meta-analyses in entrepreneurship research and a call for future research on family firm innovation. Our dataset and analytical procedures are publicly available.

家族企业在创新中的作用以及家族企业在创新投资和成果方面是否存在差异这一问题受到了激烈的争论。为了解决这些问题，杜兰、卡默兰德、范埃森和泽尔韦格（2016年）发表了一个元分析结构方程模型，表明家族企业以较少的创新投入产生了更多的创新产出。在本文中，我们展示了两项实证研究的结果。研究1复制了原始的方法，研究2通过使用一个更新且扩大的290篇论文的样本、采用一种更先进的多层次方法以及控制企业年龄进行了扩展。结果表明，虽然我们在研究1中能够成功复制DKEZ的原始结果，但研究2仅显示家族企业身份对创新投入有微弱的负面影响，对创新产出没有影响。我们的结果表明，家族企业并没有以较少的创新投入产生更多的创新产出，进一步的研究应该关注家族企业群体内部的异质性，而不是简单地将家族企业与非家族企业进行比较。最后，我们讨论了创业研究中元分析的方法学意义，并呼吁对家族企业创新进行未来研究。我们的数据集和分析过程是公开可用的。