Artificial intelligence in small and medium-sized family firms: An empirical study on the impact of family influence.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most important technologies of the future (Crew, 2020). So far, however, AI has been insufficiently deployed. This applies not only to family businesses, but especially to them. In terms of decision-making, these companies have a number of specific characteristics which mean that they find AI less relevant and may also be skeptical. The article discusses specifics of AI use in family businesses on the basis of a German empirical study. The paper shows that family businesses use AI less frequently and are also less open to the technology than non-family businesses. Socioemotional wealth (SEW) (Gómez-Mejia et al., 2007) serves as the theoretical basis. Based on the SEW, it is argued that although family businesses are aware of the need to apply new theories, they have so far underestimated the potentials and tend to be rather skeptical about applying these technologies. This view is supported by the empirical study. In addition, some differences between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies are also discussed in the paper.