BLOOD IN THE BOARD ROOM: FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCING THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD

Abstract

We develop the concept of family through using insights from evolutionary psychology, stressing genetic kinship, i.e., blood relationships. We apply the family concept on the functional emphasis of family firm’s boards. Testing the hypotheses on a convenient-sample of 68 small and medium sized Swedish family firms, we find some weak indications of blood relationships being influential on the functions of the board. We suggest development of the family conception according to these lines, where blood and the basic characteristics of nepotism are constitutive.