We explain why family‐centered noneconomic goals and bounded rationality decrease the willingness and ability of small‐ and medium‐sized family firms to hire and provide competitive compensation to nonfamily managers even in a labor market composed of stewards rather than agents....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use the socio‐emotional wealth perspective to examine how the level of family involvement reduces the propensity to use incentives to non‐family managers in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SME) family firms. Design/methodology/approach –...