The influence of family ownership on SME performance: evidence from public firms in Taiwan

The relationship between family ownership and firm performance has gained increased attention in the business strategy and financial economics literature. Most existing studies use large companies as the research sample; studies that explicitly investigate the influence of family ownership on the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain sparse. This study raises this issue explicitly by investigating the influence of founding-family ownership on the return on assets and Tobin's q of 341 public SMEs in Taiwan, during the period of 2002-2006. It emerges from the data that family ownership is prevalent and substantial in Taiwan, representing half of the public SMEs and accounting for more than 11 percent of their outstanding equity. It was found that the influence of family ownership on SME performance is positive and significant. Overall, the results suggest that family ownership is an effective organizational structure for SMEs in Taiwan.