Open AccessHigh-performance work practices, socioemotional wealth preservation, and family firm labor productivity*
Author(s) -
Remedios HernándezLinares,
María Concepción LópezFernández,
Esra Memili,
Frank Mullins,
Pankaj C. Patel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
business research quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.995
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 2340-9444
pISSN - 2340-9436
DOI - 10.1177/23409444211002521
Subject(s) - socioemotional selectivity theory , productivity , complementarity (molecular biology) , labour economics , business , industrial organization , microeconomics , economics , psychology , economic growth , developmental psychology , biology , genetics
Despite growing research on the effect of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on family firm performance, the implications of socioemotional wealth (SEW) preservation remain ambiguous. This stems from SEW preservation being used primarily as an explanatory construct and assessed indirectly rather than directly in empirical studies. To address this research gap, we draw upon organizational control and signaling theories to determine the “true” interaction between HPWPs and SEW preservation for labor productivity. Specifically, competing hypotheses are presented to determine if this interaction supports complementarity or substitutability. Using a sample of 124 Spanish family firms and a direct measurement of SEW preservation, our results provide support for substitutability, suggesting that family firms can realize higher labor productivity when HPWPs are fully implemented and commitment to SEW preservation is low, and vice versa. These findings have important implications for family firms, given HPWPs’ inverse relationship with SEW preservation regarding labor productivity. JEL CLASSIFICATION J24, L20, L21, L26, M12_M12, M54_M54, O15