Exploring the moderating effect of family communication patterns on the family CEO characteristics – family firm internationalization relationship

Abstract

This article explores the impact of family CEO characteristics on internationalization and how this relationship is moderated by family communication patterns. Drawing on family communication patterns theory, which states that family communication varies across two dimensions, i.e., family conversation orientation and family conformity orientation, we argue that early family communication shapes family CEOs’ behavior in later life and moderates the effect of family CEO characteristics on internationalization. Our results from a sample of 182 Belgian private family firms (FFs )show that family CEO education has a positive effect on the internationalization of FFs, but this effect decreases as the family conformity orientation increases. These findings make unprecedented and interesting contributions to upper echelon and family business research.