Please do not disturb! Differentiating board tasks in family and non-family firms during financial distress

•Boards of directors do not directly contribute to firm financial performance.•Suffering internal financial crisis moderates the board task - financial performance relationship.•Control tasks and networking tasks become detrimental in the family firm subsample when facing an internal financial crisis.•Only advisory tasks significantly bolster firm survival in family firms under financial distress.

Boards of directors represent a central factor for firm success by performing different tasks such as control, networking, or advice. Stemming from socioemotional wealth (SEW) literature, the aim of this article is to investigate the board tasks-financial performance relationship, showing their different contributions in family and non-family firms when firm survival is at stake. The main hypotheses are tested through moderated linear regression analyses. The findings suggest that while advisory tasks generally enhance financial performance in family firms, especially during turmoil, networking and control tasks have a detrimental effect when these firms suffer internal financial crises. Hence, we contribute to the SEW paradigm by underlining that family firms seem to accept performance hazards in order to protect family discretion and a positive public reputation even when they suffer severe hardship. In contrast, board advice supports utilizing family firms' unique social capital and significantly bolsters financial performance, without disturbing the family and its SEW preservation needs.