Loading…

Escalation of commitment in private family businesses: The influence of outside board members

► We extend escalation of commitment and resource dependence theories. ► We examine new antecedents and moderators which influence escalation of commitment in private family businesses. ► Our work encourages the use of outside board members who can help owner–managers to avoid escalation of commitme...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family business strategy 2012-03, Vol.3 (1), p.18-27
Main Authors: Woods, Jeremy A., Dalziel, Thomas, Barton, Sidney L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:► We extend escalation of commitment and resource dependence theories. ► We examine new antecedents and moderators which influence escalation of commitment in private family businesses. ► Our work encourages the use of outside board members who can help owner–managers to avoid escalation of commitment. Owner–managers of private family businesses are vulnerable to escalation of commitment, which can lead to costly failure. In an effort to help private family businesses reduce such costs and contribute to the resource dependence literature, we extend prior research on escalation of commitment (Staw, 1981). Specifically, we develop a model that examines how outside board members influence the antecedents, and moderate the processes, that lead to escalation of commitment. Our work encourages the use of outside board members, insofar as they are likely to help the owner–managers of private family businesses to avoid escalation of commitment.
ISSN:1877-8585
1877-8593
DOI:10.1016/j.jfbs.2012.01.002