Adoption of professional management in Chinese family business: A multilevel analysis of impetuses and impediments

Building upon the market, institutional, and cultural perspectives, this paper identifies the major impetuses and impediments that affect the professionalization of Chinese family business at the environment, firm, and owner levels. Our integrative framework projects that whether a family business owner will adopt professional managers is largely determined by the relative strength of impetus factors and impediment factors. We then discuss the possible governance choices under different configuration of impetuses and impediments. This theoretical framework is expected to help set the momentum for further conceptual exploration and empirical study in this area.

Hao MaEmail:

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Jianjun Zhang   (PhD, University of California at Berkeley) is an assistant professor at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. His interests include entrepreneurship, firm governance, and political strategy of Chinese private firms. He is the author of Marketization and democracy in China and a number of articles. Hao Ma   (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is a professor of management at University of Illinois at Springfield, and professor of management and director of Academic Committee at Beijing International MBA Program, China Center for Economic Research, Peking University. His research interests include the nature and cause of competitive advantage, competitive analysis, strategic decision making, leadership style, and the entrepreneurial process, especially the exploration of the above topics in international setting. He has published in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Management, and Organization Dynamics, among others.