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Family firms are more innovative than other companies

Family-owned businesses are among the most innovative in their industries, belying their perception of being risk-averse, traditional and stagnant, say professors Nadine Kammerlander and Marc van Essen in an article in the Harvard Business Review. The authors conducted their research along with academics Patricio Duran and Thomas Zellweger to determine how family firms compare to their non-family counterparts when it comes to being innovative. The findings, published in the Academy of Management Journal, show that on average family firms have a smaller R&D budget than other organisations of similar size, but that does not mean they are less innovative. For