Digital product innovation (DPI) is critical for the survival of firms, especially those operating in traditional industrial-age industries. While research has started to investigate digital innovation in family firms (FFs) considering them as a monolithic group, we still lack a more nuanced perspective that considers heterogeneity among FFs with respect to DPI and what drives such variance. Drawing on construal level theory to explain the risk behavior and goal time horizon of FF owner-managers, we propose and find that the presence of later family generations in control positively influences DPI in FFs, while the presence of a family CEO is detrimental to DPI. Furthermore, we propose that these relationships are moderated by the size of the top management team (TMT), finding that a larger TMT weakens the positive relationship between later generations in control and DPI. We base our analysis on a longitudinal sample of 103 FFs in the automotive, industrial engineering, and pharmaceutical sectors observed from 2013 to 2020. This first empirical study applying construal level theory to the family business literature has important implications for the FF digital innovation literature and for FF owner-managers interested in achieving DPI.

中文翻译：

---

家族企业内的数字产品创新：解释层面的视角


数字产品创新（DPI）对于企业的生存至关重要，尤其是那些在传统工业时代行业运营的企业。虽然研究已经开始调查家族企业 (FF) 的数字创新，将其视为一个整体，但我们仍然缺乏更细致的视角来考虑 FF 之间在 DPI 方面的异质性以及导致这种差异的原因。利用解释水平理论来解释 FF 所有者兼管理者的风险行为和目标时间范围，我们提出并发现，家族后几代的控制对 FF 的 DPI 产生积极影响，而家族 CEO 的存在则不利于 DPI 。此外，我们建议这些关系受到高层管理团队 (TMT) 规模的调节，发现较大的 TMT 会削弱后代控制权与 DPI 之间的正向关系。我们的分析基于 2013 年至 2020 年观察的汽车、工业工程和制药行业 103 个 FF 的纵向样本。这是第一项将解释水平理论应用于家族企业文献的实证研究，对 FF 数字创新文献和适合有兴趣实现 DPI 的 FF 业主经理。