Title: The role of non-economic goals in facilitating financial performance in family and non-family firms: a moderated mediation model

Authors: Bart J. Debicki; Robert Van De Graaff Randolph; Robert Zajkowski

Addresses: Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, Towson University, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252-001, USA ' Department of Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology, Lee School of Business, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154-6009, USA ' Department of Banking, College of Economics, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 5, Lublin 20-031, Poland

Abstract: The relevance of non-economic goals has long been recognised as significant in understanding the idiosyncratic behaviours and strategies of family firms. However, non-economic goals are not unique to family firms and are becoming an increasingly common part of the strategic landscape of organisations. We develop arguments, nested in behavioural and emotional agency, that suggest that non-economic goal salience may play a facilitating role in the relationship between the importance of economic goals and financial performance and that the presence of shared family ties among the ownership of firms moderates this mediated relationship. Our findings contribute to the current understanding of non-economic goals in terms of their impact on the financial performance of organisations as well as provide initial arguments for clarifying the presence of such goals as commonly associated with family firms but not uniquely derived within them.

Keywords: behavioural agency; emotional agency; family firms; economic goals; non-economic goals; non-family firms; firm performance; family businesses; financial performance; moderated mediation; family ties.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2016.079852

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2016 Vol.15 No.4, pp.308 - 327

Received: 26 Feb 2016
Accepted: 15 Jun 2016
Published online: 18 Oct 2016 *

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