Governance, along with goals and resources, is a key determinant of the distinctiveness and heterogeneity of family firms. Our introduction discusses formal and informal governance mechanisms that emanate from inside and outside the firm and then reviews, integrates, and extends the contributions to this topic of the six articles and four commentaries in this special issue. Building and reflecting on these contributions, we suggest that although formal governance mechanisms inside family firms have unique characteristics, informal governance mechanisms may be equally important, and external mechanisms, both formal and informal, can also profoundly influence the behavior and performance of family firms.
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