Purpose

This paper aims to examine the influence that family firms’ top management team (TMT) behavior and characteristics exert on their innovation opportunity realization.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through a survey addressed to a representative sample of Italian firms. The analyzed sample consists of 237 firms, 120 of which are family firms. A series of ordinary least squares models were used to test the four hypotheses.

Findings

Family firms realize fewer innovation opportunities than non-family firms. This result is fully mediated by the knowledge exchange in the TMT as follows: in family firms, the TMT exchanges less knowledge than in non-family firms, which drives their lower realization of innovation opportunities. In family firms TMT, the increase in the non-family members positively influences the TMT knowledge exchange, but only when the time the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) spends in searching for innovation opportunities outside the firm is low. The more the CEO search increases, the more this positive influence decreases, up to the point it becomes negative.

Research limitations/implications

The study contributes to the literature on innovation, knowledge management and organizational design in family firms. Nevertheless, data were collected at a single point in time and in a single country.

Practical implications

The study suggests family firms on how to foster the realization of innovation opportunities. A greater TMT knowledge exchange allows to realize more innovation opportunities and the TMT characteristics emerged as the drivers of this TMT knowledge exchange. As such, family firms should examine the interaction of their TMT composition in terms of non-family and family members with the effort that the CEO deploys to search for innovation opportunities outside the firm.

Originality/value

Empirical investigation of the link between family ownership, absorptive capacity and innovation performance by considering TMT behavior and characteristics.

中文翻译：

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在 TMT 中交流知识以实现更多创新机会：家族企业能做什么？

目的

本文旨在考察家族企业的高层管理团队（TMT）行为和特征对其创新机会实现的影响。

设计/方法/方法

数据是通过一项针对意大利公司代表性样本的调查收集的。分析样本包括 237 家公司，其中 120 家是家族企业。一系列普通最小二乘模型被用来检验这四个假设。

发现

与非家族企业相比，家族企业实现的创新机会更少。这一结果完全由 TMT 中的知识交流所调节，如下所示：在家族企业中，TMT 与非家族企业相比，交流的知识较少，这导致他们对创新机会的认识较低。在家族企业 TMT 中，非家族成员的增加对 TMT 知识交流产生积极影响，但仅当首席执行官 (CEO) 花费在企业外部寻找创新机会的时间较短时。CEO 搜索增加得越多，这种积极影响就越减少，直到它变成负面影响。

研究限制/影响

该研究为家族企业的创新、知识管理和组织设计方面的文献做出了贡献。然而，数据是在一个时间点和一个国家收集的。

实际影响

该研究建议家族企业如何促进实现创新机会。更大的 TMT 知识交流可以实现更多的创新机会，而 TMT 特征成为这种 TMT 知识交流的驱动力。因此，家族企业应检查其 TMT 构成在非家族成员和家族成员方面的相互作用，以及 CEO 为在公司外部寻找创新机会所付出的努力。

原创性/价值

考虑TMT行为和特征的家庭所有权、吸收能力和创新绩效之间关系的实证研究。