The last decades have seen increasing interest in the determinants of heterogeneity in family firm innovation. In this study, we respond to recent calls to address the micro-level mechanisms behind innovation in family firms. Specifically, we analyze the effect of family CEO affect, namely positive and negative affective traits, on the R&D investment decisions of family firms. We also analyze the moderating effect of family ownership structure on the influence of CEO affect on these strategic decisions. Consistent with affect maintenance arguments, our findings of a sample of 142 Spanish family firms show that positive family CEO affect negatively influences the R&D investments of family firms, while negative affect positively influences these investments. The results also show that family CEO ownership and family CEO branch ownership strengthen the effects of family CEO affect on R&D investments, whereas ownership concentration in other family branches weakens these effects.

过去几十年来，人们对家族企业创新异质性的决定因素越来越感兴趣。在这项研究中，我们响应了最近提出的解决家族企业创新背后的微观机制的呼吁。具体来说，我们分析了家族CEO情感，即积极和消极情感特征对家族企业研发投资决策的影响。我们还分析了家族股权结构对首席执行官对这些战略决策的影响的调节作用。与情感维持论点一致，我们对 142 家西班牙家族企业样本的研究结果表明，积极的家族 CEO 情感会对家族企业的研发投资产生负面影响，而负面情感则会对这些投资产生积极影响。