Abstract

AVENDANO-ALCARAZ, Jorge; KELLY, Louise; TREVINYO-RODRIGUEZ, Rosa Nelly  and  MADERO GOMEZ, Sergio. A family-based competitive advantage: handling key success family factors in Mexican family businesses. Cuad. Adm. [online]. 2009, vol.22, n.39, pp.191-212. ISSN 0120-3592.

Being a family business is not good or bad per se; it is an extra characteristic that management has to deal with. In fact, family influence can become a blessing or a curse for a company, depending on how family members handle Key Success Family Factors (KSFF). This paper presents the Two Stages Scoring (TSS) model, a tool that companies can use to develop a competitive advantage based precisely on family influence. TSS Model is based on results obtained in a Mexican Family Businesses research, in which the relationship between family influence and firm performance was tested. The variable "family influence" was measured through the common F-PEC instrument and by FAMILIAL INDEX, while the "firm performance" was measured by CEO level of satisfaction on six financial performance dimensions. Conclusions of the research include that family influence-firm performance relationship is not high for this sample of companies and, as a consequence, the TSS model is proposed based on the idea that firm performance is related more effectively to the KSFF.

Keywords : Mexican family businesses; competitive advantage; key success family factors.

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