Utilization and value of social networking relationships in family and nonfamily firms in an African transition economy

SummaryThis study investigates the utilization of managerial networking relationships with social and political entities to create social capital in family-owned and nonfamily firms, and compares the impact of the value of the social capital derived from the networking relationships on performance between family-owned and nonfamily firms. Using data from Ghana, the findings show that there are differences in the utilization of networking with social and political stakeholders to create social capital by family-owned and nonfamily firms. While networking relationships with government bureaucratic officials and community leaders have an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance for family-owned firms, it has a linear, positive and monotonic relationship with performance for nonfamily firms. Overall, the findings suggest that networking relationship matters, but extensive utilization of networking relationships with external stakeholders may have diminishing returns to performance for family-owned firms.