Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation

CHEN Yuan; HE Xiaogang

Volume 40 Issue 2

Mar. 2025

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CHEN Yuan, HE Xiaogang. Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation[J]. Journal of Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, 2025, 40(2): 39-55.

Citation:

CHEN Yuan, HE Xiaogang. Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation[J]. Journal of Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, 2025, 40(2): 39-55.

CHEN Yuan, HE Xiaogang. Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation[J]. Journal of Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, 2025, 40(2): 39-55.

Citation:

CHEN Yuan, HE Xiaogang. Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation[J]. Journal of Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, 2025, 40(2): 39-55.

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Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation

CHEN Yuan¹,
HE Xiaogang^2
,

1.
School of Management, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430048
2.
College of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China

Received Date: 2024-12-10
Available Online: 2025-03-31
Publish Date: 2025-03-28

Abstract

Abstract

How to incentivize family businesses to actively drive innovation is one of the vital strategic issues for achieving high-quality economic development and Chinese-style modernization. Based on the data from Chinese listed family businesses from 2008 to 2020, this study examines the impact of social capital alignment between the chairmen and their spouses on innovation in family business, and further investigates the moderating effects of different types of family member involvement. The findings reveal that when the chairmen and their spouses exhibit "assortative mating" in social capital, the innovation level of family businesses significantly declines; the key mechanism lies in the agency problems between the family and the enterprise, generating a crowding-out effect on innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the inhibitory effect of "assortative mating" on innovation is mitigated in regions with stronger government innovation policies and higher levels of social trust. Additionally, family member involvement moderates the relationship between marital matching and corporate innovation: spousal involvement exacerbates the innovation-suppressing effect of "assortative mating", while the involvement of children and parents alleviates this negative impact. By introducing marital matching into the research of family business, this study provides critical insights into fostering innovation under specific marital structures.
- marriage match,
- social capital,
- corporate innovation,
- family business

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References(36)

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