In recent years, management scholars have begun to examine how nuclear and extended family structures shape firm strategies and outcomes. While a regulatory focus can predict entrepreneurial decisions and outcomes, it is unclear how family firms with nuclear family members employ regulatory focus differently from their counterparts without such members. This article develops a model that explains how having a nuclear family presence in the top management team of the firm can lead to a higher promotion focus and lower prevention focus compared to those with extended family members. It also considers the moderator of patriarchy, as an institutional factor shaping the parenting style and human capital within nuclear families; furthermore, we compare the distinctive effect of the parent–child and husband–wife tie within the nuclear family. We conducted a panel study of 391 post-Initial public offering family firms in China from 2004 to 2013. This work contributes to the literature on family structure and entrepreneurial strategy.
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