Researching Long-Term Orientation: A Validation Study and Recommendations for Future Research

Assumptions about the long-term orientation (LTO) of family firms are common in family business research. Drawing on prior conceptualizations, this article further develops and validates the LTO construct using content analysis techniques on two separate samples of data. Validation comes through empirical analysis of content validity, external validity, dimensionality, and concurrent validity. We find that family firms are higher than nonfamily firms on all three dimensions of LTO. We also discuss how future research can use this now-validated construct to address key questions in family business research, as well as inform the broader business literature.