Author:

Keywords:

psychological ownership, family firms, autonomy, Social Sciences, Business, Management, Business & Economics, CEO autonomy, Family business, Psychological ownership, Stewardship behavior, SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS, AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS, COMMITMENT, PERFORMANCE, WORK, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESSES, EMPLOYEES, ATTITUDES, CULTURE, 1503 Business and Management, 3505 Human resources and industrial relations, 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour

Abstract:

This study investigates the relationship between a family business CEO’s autonomy and stewardship behavior. Building on psychological ownership theory, we argue that psychological ownership mediates the autonomy–stewardship relationship. 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 and 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.