In the recently published journal article
in the Family Business Review, “Which
type of advisors do family businesses trust most?” (http://fbr.sagepub.com/content/28/3/211),
authors Perry, Ring and Broberg use socioemotional selectivity theory, or SEST
– from the discipline of psychology – to examine the relationship between the
age of a family business and its trust in family or professional business
advisors.
With the knowledge that people experience changes
in their priorities as they age, the researchers argue that SEST could also be
applied to the social behavior of some family businesses as they age and pass
from one life stage to another (author Kelin E. Gersick’s life stages of the
family business are commonly referred to as the founding stage; the sibling
partnership and then the cousin consortium), prioritizing emotional goals over
knowledge goals as they progress.
The authors consider SEST’s “emotional
goals” very similar to family business’ “socioemotional wealth” and SEST’s
“knowledge goals” roughly equivalent to family business’ “financial wealth.”
The term ‘socioemotional wealth’ is becoming more frequently used in family
business literature in an effort to better-define the non-financial wealth
enjoyed by many family firms, and “refers to the collective, affective capital
that a group possesses (Berrone, Cruz, & Gómez-Mejia, 2012) …. socioemotional
wealth includes the abilities to further family goals and perpetuate family
values within the business and to use the business as a means of maintaining
intrafamily intimacy (Berrone et al., 2012; Gómez-Mejia, Cruz, Berrone, &
De Castro., 2011; Gómez-Mejia, Haynes, Núňez-Nickel, Jacobson, &
Moyano-Fuentes, 2007).”
The authors point out that in their study,
the use of the term “professional business advisors” includes accountants,
management or strategic consultants, financial planners, moral counselors and
others, and does not include “family business specialty consultants,” which is
the term they use for professional advisors with expertise in family
enterprise. By “family advisors” the authors are referring to family members who
are employed in the company and whom “are often more familiar with issues in
the family and business and can therefore provide advice on a wider scope of
topics than can professional, nonfamily advisors. Family advisors can
knowledgably provide advice to their relatives related to ownership,
management, and family issues.”
While the findings of the study did not
ultimately support a direct relationship between a family business’ age and the
type of advisors who are most-trusted, the results did indicate a relationship
between a family business’ age and wealth emphasis, suggesting that “as a family
business’s age increases, it places greater emphasis on socioemotional wealth
and less emphasis on financial wealth,” as well as a subsequent correlation
between wealth emphasis and the types of advisors who are most trusted: “… as
family businesses age, an emphasis on socioemotional wealth increases; as
socioemotional wealth emphasis increases, family businesses tend to place
greater trust in family advisors.”
The authors note that although there were
several limitations to their study, perhaps one of the most valuable outcomes
is the introduction of SEST to the family business literature, in which there
is great potential for more research, particularly with the “growing
recognition of the importance of socioemotional wealth in family business.”
Ultimately the study is not as insightful into
the field of family enterprise advising as one might hope, because it focused
on two different types of advisors which are distinctly different. However, the
relation between the life stage of a family firm and its types of priorities
(financial, socioemotional, or otherwise) provides valuable information for
advisors working with and within family firms.
Furthermore, the researchers point out
that:
“the strength of
the family vision may also play a role in the selection of family versus
nonfamily advisors … when a strong family vision exists, the leaders are more
likely to select and implement socioemotional wealth goals … future research
should investigate how the strength of a family vision affects family business
leaders’ willingness to trust nonfamily advisors who may not understand or
appreciate the family’s vision. It may be that the strength of the family
vision moderates the relationship between firm age and wealth emphasis.”
The authors also propose that there are a
number of specific areas of research to pursue in relation to the evaluation of
business advisors, including: the cost of advice; the amount of interaction
time required; the advisor’s communication style, the nature of the task for
which advice is being sought, and the degree to which the business leader is
comfortable having their norms challenged. These are all valid and relevant
avenues of research which would serve the field well, and be useful for the
field of family enterprise advising moving forward.
Article citation:
Perry, J. T., Ring, J. K., & Broberg,
J. C. (2015). Which type of advisors do family businesses trust most? An
exploratory application of socioemotional selectivity theory. Family Business Review, 28(3), 211-226. Original
DOI: 10.1177/0894486514538652.
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