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Abstract:

This paper examines CEOs’ identification with the family firm and its effects on psychological ownership and affective commitment and presents a study of 111 Finnish family firms. The results indicate that CEOs’ identification with the family firm relates positively to their affective commitment and is mediated by their individual-oriented psychological ownership. Further, the results seem to suggest that treating a firm not just as one single target of possessive feelings, but as a set of several different ownership targets, has an important impact on findings. Thus, the role of targets of psychological ownership and the hierarchy of concepts of possessive feelings are definitely worth further empirical research.