Measuring Socioemotional Wealth in Family-owned and -managed Firms: A Validation and Short Form of the FIBER Scale

Socioemotional wealth (SEW) is a key concept in family business research. The proposed FIBER scale as a direct and multidimensional measure of SEW is therefore a significant research achievement. We refined the scale by validating and thereby shortening it, using a sample of 216 family-owned and -managed firms with up to 500 employees in the German-speaking area. The validation reveals different degrees of validity across the five FIBER dimensions, resulting in a revised short form called the REI scale that comprises nine items that measure the core affective endowments a family may derive from controlling a firm. Based on our empirical validation, we discuss theoretical implications for the further development of a sound SEW measure.