Self–Serving or Self–Actualizing? Models of Man and Agency Costs in Different Types of Family Firms: A Commentary on “Comparing the Agency Costs of Family and Non–family Firms: Conceptual Issues and Exploratory Evidence”

Agency theory is suitable to explain the effects of relationships among organizational actors on efficiency. What is missing is a framework to explain behaviors aimed at maximizing performance within organizations in which a pro-organizational attitude coexists with self-serving motives, such as family firms. In this paper we suggest that differences in organizational performance are not driven by family involvement or lack thereof, but by the prevalence of agency or stewardship relationships within the firm, whatever the degree of family involvement.