The corporate board is considered an effective corporate governance mechanism (CGM) of family firms (FF), playing a critical monitoring role and enhancing FF performance. FF and corporate governance (CG) literature, however, shows mixed opinions about the relationship between various board attributes and its impact on FF performance. FFs are, in general, quite different from non-FFs in their ownership structures, family shareholders’ involvement and control on the board, and the implications of the agency problem. Therefore, the association between governance mechanisms (in the form of board attributes) and FF performance is not null. The present study aims to provide a clearer understanding of the relationships between board attributes and FF performance by performing a -analysis of 47 recent empirical publications in varying contextual settings. Although results indicated that several board attributes have significant relationships with FF performance, variations in their strength and direction were reported in two contextual settings: country culture and the legal origin of the firm. Our results provide deeper insights into effective CG for FFs and concrete suggestions for equipping the board with suitable attributes to enhance firm performance. This study explains why managers should consider contextual settings when making decisions about an FFs’ board structure.

中文翻译：

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公司治理机制的动态——家族企业的绩效关系——荟萃分析综述

公司董事会被认为是家族企业（FF）有效的公司治理机制（CGM），发挥着关键的监督作用并提高了家族企业的绩效。然而，FF 和公司治理 (CG) 文献对各种董事会属性之间的关系及其对 FF 绩效的影响表现出不同的看法。总体而言，FF 与非 FF 在所有权结构、家族股东对董事会的参与和控制以及代理问题的影响方面有很大不同。因此，治理机制（以董事会属性的形式）与 FF 绩效之间的关联并不为零。本研究旨在通过对不同背景下的 47 篇最新实证出版物进行分析，更清楚地了解董事会属性与 FF 绩效之间的关系。尽管结果表明，董事会的一些属性与 FF 绩效具有显着关系，但它们的强度和方向在两种背景下有所不同：国家文化和公司的法律起源。我们的研究结果为 FF 的有效 CG 提供了更深入的见解，并为董事会配备适当的属性以提高公司绩效提供了具体建议。这项研究解释了为什么管理者在做出有关 FF 董事会结构的决策时应考虑背景设置。