European Academy of Management (EURAM) Annual Conference, Date: 2013/06/26 - 2013/06/29, Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Publication date: 2013-06-27

Proceedings of the 13th European Academy of Management (EURAM) Annual Conference

Author:

Henssen, Bart
Voordecker, Wim ; Lambrechts, Frank ; Koiranen, Matti

Keywords:

autonomy, family firms, psychological ownership, stewardship

Abstract:

The present study investigates the family business CEOs’ autonomy as a new antecedent of CEO stewardship behavior. Building on psychological ownership theory, we argue that the autonomy-stewardship relationship is mediated by psychological ownership. In contrast to prior studies, we differentiate between individual-oriented and collective-oriented psychological ownership as two distinct dimensions of individual psychological ownership. Our results reveal that CEO autonomy is an important determinant of stewardship behavior but that this relationship is only mediated by individual-oriented psychological ownership. Moreover, both individual-oriented and collective-oriented psychological ownership are found to be antecedents of CEO stewardship behavior.