Relationship between the degree of family owner’s fear of maintaining SEW and firm innovativeness

SEW has received significant attention since 2007. However, many studies view SEW as a
unidimensional construct that impedes family firm innovation behaviours. For example,
family owners are willing to preserve SEW endowment and avoid risk-taking behaviours
which could cause the family firm to lose SEW (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007; Berrone et al.,
2012). However, the positive effects of SEW on family firm innovation is largely overlooked
by previous studies. Gomez-Mejia et al. (2007) suggest the risk-taking behaviour will
enhance dramatically when SEW shows the trend to decrease. A psychological connection
exists between family owners and SEW. Relying on protect-motivation theory, we plan to
observe the relationship between family owners’ fearful emotions on SEW dimensions and
firm innovativeness based on the survey data. The contribution would show that the level of
innovativeness is changing while the family owner’s fearful emotion is placing on particular
SEW dimensions.