The relationship between family capital and family business performance: collaboration and conflict as moderators

This study defines the concept of family capital and proposes that family capital has potential impact on business performance. It hypothesizes that this potential is unleashed when a family business collaborates or encounters moderate levels of task conflict and is inhibited when a family business engages in relational conflict. Thus, this study investigates whether the use of collaboration as a problem solving technique within family business has a moderating effect on the relationship between family capital and family business performance. Additionally, this study investigates whether the existence of conflict (i.e. both task and relational) within family business has a moderating effect on the relationship between family capital and family business performance. Specifically, it is theorized that (1) family capital will positively affect family business performance, and (2)conflict and collaboration will moderate this relationship. The hypotheses are tested using data from the Survey of Family Business collected by the Center For Entrepreneurship and Family Business at Texas Tech University.