Moving Beyond Socioemotional Wealth: Toward a Normative Theory of Decision Making in Family Business

Abstract

Business-owning families are widely believed to make decisions in order to increase their authority over, influence on, and identity with their businesses. Yet, because the resulting socioemotional wealth is intended to be enjoyed by the family alone, this view reflects a largely self-interested approach to decision making. We, therefore, call on family business scholars to leverage the work of social economists (i.e., Amitai Etzioni) and moral philosophers (i.e., Adam Smith) in order to develop normative guidance for family owners seeking to pursue their own interests as well as those of the other stakeholders in society to which they are accountable.