Title: Founder effectiveness in sustaining financial performance: influence of family ownership

Authors: Norazlin Ahmad; Irene Wei Kiong Ting; Hanh Thi My Le

Addresses: Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26300 Gambang, Pahang, Malaysia ' Benchmarking Research Group, Faculty of Accounting, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ' Benchmarking Research Group, Faculty of Accounting, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the association between the founder-CEO and the level of firm financial sustainability in the presence of family ownership by using a unique dataset of publicly listed construction firms in Malaysia from 2009 to 2017. Our regression results show that the founder-CEO and family ownership significantly and negatively affect financial sustainability, which is proxied by operational self-sufficiency. However, their negative effects are alleviated when the founder-CEO and family ownership interact. These results show that the founder-CEO may be ineffective in sustaining the financial performance in the construction industry. This study calls for greater examinations of founder effectiveness under the influence of family ownership.

Keywords: financial sustainability; founder-CEO; family ownership; founder effectiveness; construction firms.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2020.106174

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2020 Vol.12 No.2/3, pp.109 - 121

Received: 29 Dec 2018
Accepted: 08 May 2019
Published online: 01 Apr 2020 *

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