Evaluation of Family Firm Value and Its Spatial Evolution Towards Sustainable Development in China

Junjie Le, Renyong Hou, Lu Xiang, Zehao Zhang () and Jing Li
Additional contact information
Junjie Le: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Renyong Hou: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Lu Xiang: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Zehao Zhang: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Jing Li: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-24

Abstract: This study develops a four-dimensional value-assessment framework encompassing economic, innovation, social, and cultural dimensions to evaluate the multidimensional performance of family firms in China. Drawing on the entropy weighting method, we construct a composite value index for 251 A-share listed family firms from 2014 to 2023 and apply spatial statistical techniques—including Dagum Gini coefficients, Theil indices, and coefficients of variation—to examine temporal evolution and regional disparities. We further estimate explanatory panel models with firm and year fixed effects (Hausman test favoring FE) to identify the firm-level determinants of composite value. Leverage exhibits a significantly negative association with value, while firm size and innovation capacity are positively related; no significant moderating effect of technology-intensive industry is found. A robustness check using equal weights (0.25 for each dimension) yields an almost perfect correlation (0.9999) with the entropy-weighted index, confirming that the dominance of the innovation dimension in the weighting scheme does not materially affect the overall conclusions. The results highlight the importance of integrating multidimensional value perspectives into both academic research and policy design to promote balanced, inclusive, and sustainable development trajectories for family enterprises.

Keywords: family firms; entropy method; Gini coefficient; spatial evolution; sustainable development; regional disparities; multidimensional value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7609/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7609/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7609-:d:1731002

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().