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家族企業之興業行為：探究忠僕型經理人、開創性導向以及新產品開發之關係
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managers, such as deferred compensation plan. In summary, aligning managerial interests
with the founding family's and creating mutual understanding help generate the sense of
belonging and thereby result in a longer planning horizon for managerial decision making.
6. Research Limitations and Future Research
Readers should bear in mind some of the limitations of our research when assessing the
meaning of our study and its results. First, most of the companies in our sample are
considered small to medium-sized firms. Thus, the role of steward-like managers in the
development of entrepreneurial behaviors may be different in very large firms. Second, this
study is also subject to the limitations associated with cross-sectional designs, thus not
allowing us to argue causality and exposing us to possible common method bias. By
collecting multiple responses from managers and employees, common method bias does not
appear to pose a problem in this research. The test for common method bias did not indicate
significant concerns for this study. However, the cross-sectional design may still have
hindered our conclusions since stewardship-related variables may take time to create positive
outcomes. In spite of these limitations, this study still provides valuable insights to both
academics and practitioners, enabling them to better understand the causal and consequence
of entrepreneurial behavior in family business.
Firms in a dynamic environment are challenged to keep engaging in entrepreneurial
activities, and more specifically, to explore new possibilities in order to cope with future
changes in the business environment, and exploit old certainties to meet today’s business
demands (March, 1991). While firms have a bias tendency toward exploitation (Katila and
Ahuja, 2002), it is important to understand how firms manage to pursue exploration
activities, because managers in today’s competitive environment not only need to be good at
exploiting current asset value but also at exploring new opportunities.
Exploration and exploitation are typically studied at the firm-level (e.g., He and Wong,
2004), business unit-level (e.g., Jansen, Van Den Bosch, and Volberda, 2006), or manager
level (e.g., Mom et al., 2007). There is, however, a lack of understanding about steward-like
managers’ role in facilitating exploration activities. Our research fills in this gap and suggests
that the exploration of a firm may have much to do with the managers’ attitude toward
decision comprehensiveness, participative governance and long-term orientation. Broadly
speaking, we found that managers’ steward-like behaviors do affect entrepreneurial activities
in different ways. It would be useful for future research to expand the search for