Why they stay: Examining the intentions of non-family managers to remain employed in family firms

Abstract

The project addresses a critical gap in family business research literature, the interactions between owning families and non-family managers, by developing an empirical study of the intentions of these managers to stay employed in family businesses. I develop and test a model of how two manager characteristics and two owning family behaviours affect family business manager intention to stay. The model extends self-determination theory into the realm of family business research and is an opportunity to empirically study Ballinger & Rockmann’s (2010) notion of anchor events. The result is a mixed-methods project that includes a large online survey and a set of interviews with family business managers. From the collected survey data I test four hypotheses and report the results. Through the analysis I am able to demonstrate significant relationships between manager characteristics, owning family behaviours and family business manager intention to stay. From the interviews I develop deeper understandings and gain insights on owning family behaviours and non-family manager intention to stay employed in family businesses.