Women's roles in family businesses: some empirical evidence from Italy
Journal of Family Business Management
ISSN: 2043-6238
Article publication date: 20 October 2022
Issue publication date: 14 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
As women are still promoted to C-level roles at far lower rates than men, this paper examines whether there is a clear and direct relationship between women's formal roles and the effect of the socio-cultural context on their participation in strategic decisions in family businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a quantitative research design and logistic regression to analyze empirical data from a randomly selected sample of 800 firms in Sardinia.
Findings
In general, the results show that women's formal roles and participation in the decision-making process are not related, except in a specific sector (agriculture and farming), and that the local context plays an unquestionable role in terms of replicating local customs and traditions in the workplace.
Research limitations/implications
Although limited by the sample of firms in the same territory, this study shows that women participate in strategic decision-making both when tasked to by virtue of their leadership role and when playing a minor role by way of implicit decision-making power. However, the sector can hinder women's participation, especially when strongly rooted in local culture.
Originality/value
The study shows that the socio-cultural context has a strong influence on women's involvement in strategic decision-making, highlighting the “silent” way women make the most relevant decisions. Therefore, this study questions whether it is still relevant to discuss the formal role of women or whether it is more pertinent to investigate their explicit or implicit power in making strategic decisions in family businesses.
Keywords
Citation
Dettori, A. and Floris, M. (2023), "Women's roles in family businesses: some empirical evidence from Italy", Journal of Family Business Management, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 1068-1084. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-04-2022-0053
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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