The propensity to use incentive compensation for non‐family managers in SME family firms

The purpose of this paper is to use the socio‐emotional wealth perspective to examine how the level of family involvement reduces the propensity to use incentives to non‐family managers in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SME) family firms.Design/methodology/approach – Primary data were collected from US firms. To evaluate the hypotheses, a logit model was employed on a final sample of 2,019 small family firms.

Results suggest that family influence and control and intra‐family transgenerational succession intentions are negatively related to the propensity to use incentives. Also, the interaction effects of family management and ownership reduce the propensity to use incentives.

The paper’s empirical findings imply that despite their potential economic benefits, family involvement reduces the probability that incentives will be offered to non‐family managers because such incentives are perceived to be inconsistent with the preservation of the family’s socioemotional wealth. Also, choices that reflect a preference for socioemotional wealth may not only be a function of decision framing and loss aversion but also by the size of the economic pay‐offs that might be available. The findings suggest that non‐family managers in SME family firms may be affected by a family’s preoccupation with its socioemotional endowments. Thus, the authors expect that this paper provides further avenues to explore the decisions about attaining non‐economic and economic goals and other strategic issues in family firms.