Socioemotional wealth (SEW) as the driver of business performance in family businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the mediating role of transformational leadership

PurposeThe aim of this study is to investigate a mediation role of leadership over business performance and socioemotional wealth, within two Bosnian family businesses. This research purpose brings interesting highlights regarding how family businesses embedded the role of leadership that it might have a tremendous influence on business performance while tuning the socioemotional wealth.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on qualitative research methodology. The sample is collected based on a purposive sampling method as in most qualitative studies. As the instrument for data collection is concerned, in-person-semi-structured interview has been employed with the owner-manager of each particular-family firm. Thus, two case studies were conducted and analyzed.FindingsThe research contributes both to the theory and the practice. From the theoretical perspective, it contributes to the theoretical knowledge of leadership as an important role in relationship between the socioemotional wealth and business performance. The practical contribution of this research could be summed up in the sense that business owners should seek to employ positive leadership vibes to create a good socioemotional wealth so that would be positively reflected in overall business performance of a family business. Other findings are further discussed.Originality/valueScarce empirical research offers mixed results while theoretical propositions that organizational governance (leadership) plays an important role in this relationship, is somehow neglected. Hence, this is the first empirical study on this particular that investigates this topic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), even in the Balkan region.