Family firms and layoff announcements – Media perceptions, the use of language, and performance effects

家族企业在世界范围内主导着经济活动，其结构特征和战略决策与其他公司有着显著的不同。有大量的文献强调，与其他所有权结构的公司相比，家族企业通常享有更高的声誉。然而，关于这种声誉奖励如何转化为媒体对战略决策公告的看法，我们所知甚少。当公司公布关键决策时，战略决策与相关媒体反应的相互作用尤为有趣。在宣布大规模裁员时，“坏消息”的强度可能会最大，因此预计会引起强烈而多样的反应。因此，这个项目的目标是分析这种裁员决定的公告和相关的媒体反应的相互作用，明确区分家族企业和非家族企业。我们特别想回答以下三个问题：当家族企业宣布裁员时，媒体的负面反应是否会减少？家族企业与非家族企业在裁员决策上的沟通方式不同吗？相关媒体反应的表现后果是什么？为了对家族企业的声誉和沟通以及媒体对裁员公告的反应提供理论解释，我们使用了行为，特别是社会认知的视角。这种方法特别适合回答这些问题，因为声誉和企业传播，包括媒体代理人对它的看法，是一个黑盒子，传统的、以效率为导向的、战略的管理理念很难打开。根据经验，我们想要构建一个面板，其中包含15年（2005-2020年）期间（德国、奥地利和瑞士）DACH地区（德国、奥地利和瑞士）公司的所有裁员公告（影响至少100名员工）。初步筛选结果显示，在此期间，大约有1000家公司宣布裁员，其中约四分之一来自家族企业。我们将使用内容分析来指定裁员公告的措辞以及相关媒体的反应。该项目的结果有望为研究和管理实践提供有价值的见解，因为它将是第一个系统分析家族企业和非家族企业在宣布战略决策时媒体反应的差异。对家族（和非家族）企业所使用的沟通策略的差异及其绩效后果的广泛分析，增强了我们对家族企业固有特征及其在公众中的认知的认识。

Family firms dominate economic activity around the world being significantly different from other companies in their structural characteristics and their strategic decision-making. There is extensive literature that highlights that family-owned firms typically enjoy a higher reputation compared to firms with other ownership structures. However, there is very limited knowledge on how this reputation bonus translates into the media perception of strategic decisions’ announcements. The interplay of communicating a strategic decision and the associated media reactions are particularly interesting when firms publicize critical decisions. ‘Bad news’, which might have their strongest amplitude when announcing large-scale layoffs, are expected to create strong and divers reactions. Hence, the goal of this project is to analyze the interplay of the announcement of such downsizing decisions and the associated media reactions, explicitly distinguishing between family firms and non-family firms. In particular, we want to answer the following three questions: Does the media react less negatively toward downsizing announcements when family firms make them? Do family firms communicate downsizing decisions differently from non-family firms? What are the performance consequences of associated media reactions? In order to deliver a theoretical explanation for the reputation and communication of family firms and the media response to a downsizing announcement, we use a behavioral, in particular, a socio-cognitive, perspective. This approach is particularly suitable to answer the questions because reputation and corporate communication, including its perception by media agents, are rather a black box, which is difficult to open by traditional, efficiency-oriented, strategic management concepts. Empirically, we want to construct a panel of all downsizing announcements (affecting a minimum of 100 employees) of firms based in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) within a 15-year time period (2005–2020). A preliminary screening led to about one thousand downsizing announcements within this period, about a quarter of them from family firms. We will use content analyses to specify the wording of downsizing announcements as well as the associated media reactions. The results of this project are expected to deliver valuable insights for research as well as management practice, as it will be the first systematic analysis on how the media response differs between the announcements of strategic decisions of family firms and non-family firms. The extensive analysis of the difference in the communication strategies used by family (and non-family) firms and their performance consequences enhance our knowledge on the inherent specifics of family-owned firms and their perception in the public.