CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective
Family business leaders often grapple with paradoxical tensions between digitalizing their companies and preserving their social-emotional wealth (SEW). This study focuses on the influence of chief executive officers’ (CEOs) passion for inventing (PFI) on the performance of family firms. It further...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-12-01
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| Series: | Digital Business |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000390 |
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| _version_ | 1849226848721960960 |
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| author | Qiang Wu Muhammad Sualeh Khattak Muhammad Anwar Imad Bani Hani Omar Hujran |
| author_facet | Qiang Wu Muhammad Sualeh Khattak Muhammad Anwar Imad Bani Hani Omar Hujran |
| author_sort | Qiang Wu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Family business leaders often grapple with paradoxical tensions between digitalizing their companies and preserving their social-emotional wealth (SEW). This study focuses on the influence of chief executive officers’ (CEOs) passion for inventing (PFI) on the performance of family firms. It further examines how digitalization capacity mediates this relationship and how the commitment to preserving SEW may moderate it. For methodological rigor, we employed a dual data approach, using primary and secondary data from 100 family firms. We found no significant direct effect of CEOs’ PFI on the performance of family firms. However, this impact is indirect, primarily affecting digitalization capacity. Additionally, a strong commitment to preserving SEW can shift the influence of CEOs’ passion on digitalization capacity from positive to negative. Our findings suggest that family firms should not exclusively focus on non-economic goals because this could hinder CEOs’ efforts toward digitalization. Instead, family CEOs should create a balance between the preservation of SEW and digitalization capacity, which contributes to increased performance. This study adds to the knowledge of upper echelons theory and SEW theory by examining the nuances of the interactions between CEOs’ PFI, digitalization capacity, and performance in family business. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2852c04a7745423ca50cf9febdc706bb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2666-9544 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Business |
| spelling | doaj-art-2852c04a7745423ca50cf9febdc706bb2025-08-24T05:14:54ZengElsevierDigital Business2666-95442025-12-015210014410.1016/j.digbus.2025.100144CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspectiveQiang Wu0Muhammad Sualeh Khattak1Muhammad Anwar2Imad Bani Hani3Omar Hujran4School of Accounting and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative RegionSchool of Accounting and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Division of Business and Hospitality Management, College of Professional and Continuing Education, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative RegionDepartment of Statistics and Business Analytics, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), United Arab Emirates; Department of Controlling, University of Kassel, GermanyDepartment of Statistics and Business Analytics, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), United Arab Emirates; Corresponding author. Department of Statistics and Business Analytics, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), United Arab EmiratesDepartment of Statistics and Business Analytics, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), United Arab Emirates; Human Capital Research Center, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 15551, United Arab EmiratesFamily business leaders often grapple with paradoxical tensions between digitalizing their companies and preserving their social-emotional wealth (SEW). This study focuses on the influence of chief executive officers’ (CEOs) passion for inventing (PFI) on the performance of family firms. It further examines how digitalization capacity mediates this relationship and how the commitment to preserving SEW may moderate it. For methodological rigor, we employed a dual data approach, using primary and secondary data from 100 family firms. We found no significant direct effect of CEOs’ PFI on the performance of family firms. However, this impact is indirect, primarily affecting digitalization capacity. Additionally, a strong commitment to preserving SEW can shift the influence of CEOs’ passion on digitalization capacity from positive to negative. Our findings suggest that family firms should not exclusively focus on non-economic goals because this could hinder CEOs’ efforts toward digitalization. Instead, family CEOs should create a balance between the preservation of SEW and digitalization capacity, which contributes to increased performance. This study adds to the knowledge of upper echelons theory and SEW theory by examining the nuances of the interactions between CEOs’ PFI, digitalization capacity, and performance in family business.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000390L26L,25O31 |
| spellingShingle | Qiang Wu Muhammad Sualeh Khattak Muhammad Anwar Imad Bani Hani Omar Hujran CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective Digital Business L26 L,25 O31 |
| title | CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective |
| title_full | CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective |
| title_fullStr | CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective |
| title_full_unstemmed | CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective |
| title_short | CEO passion, digitalization, and family firm performance: A socio-emotional wealth perspective |
| title_sort | ceo passion digitalization and family firm performance a socio emotional wealth perspective |
| topic | L26 L,25 O31 |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000390 |
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