Page 1 Stakeholder Goals in Family Firms – Evidence from Upper Austria Bernhard Gärtner, Johannes Kepler University, Austria Birgit Feldbauer-Durstmüller, Johannes Kepler University, Austria Christine Duller, Johannes Kepler University, Austria ABSTRACT Research into the field of management accounting practices in family businesses is growing. A considerable number of publications in this field are now dedicated to exploring the differences between family businesses and non-family businesses. This paper investigates stakeholder satisfaction and stakeholder information, which have been neglected fields both in management accounting and in family business research thus far. Based on contingency theory and stakeholder theory, we find that the contextual factors firm type and firm size cannot be regarded as determining factors in firms’ stakeholder goals. Keywords: Management Accounting; Family Firms; Stakeholder Goals, Stakeholder Theory, Contingency Theory INTRODUCTION espite their particularities (Klein, 2010), family enterprises (FE) make a substantial contribution to the wealth and the formation of assets and working places in market-oriented economic systems across the world (Kirchoff and Kirchoff, 1987; Astrachan and Shanker, 2003; Dyer, 2003; Zellweger, 2007; Achleitner et al., 2010; Mahto et al., 2010). Indeed, latest estimates suggest that FE comprise between 60% and 85% of all enterprises in various geographical regions (Flören, 1998; Frey et al., 2004; Feldbauer-Durstmüller et al., 2007; Klein, 2010). 1 FE are characterised by the economic, macro-economic and socio-economic relationship between the family, owner and company and by how this relationship influences the corporate policy of these enterprises (Chua et al., 1999; Chrisman et al., 2005). In contrast to non-family enterprises (NFE), FE have a long-term goal orientation dominated by a sustainable existence rather than profit maximisation (Sirmon and Hitt, 2003; Hack, 2009; Horváth, 2010). Consequently, FE must satisfy the interests of both family members and other stakeholders, such as those of investors, customers, suppliers and employees (Zellweger and Nason, 2008). Despite the importance of FE on national economies, little research has been carried out on this topic (Bird et al., 2002; Dyer, 2003; Hack, 2009). Indeed, FE have only been established as an independent research field within the past two decades, since which their organisation, leadership and financial particularities have been investigated more thoroughly (Sharma, 2004; Chrisman et al., 2005; Chrisman et al., 2006). Therefore, more research into management accounting in FE is necessary even though some German-speaking (Schachner et al., 2006; Feldbauer-Durstmüller et al., 2007; Haas, 2010) and international (Chua et al., 2003; Sharma et al., 2003; García Pérez de Lema and Duréndez, 2007; Salvato and Moores, 2010; Duller et al., 2011) empirical studies exist. A central research question of such studies in recent years has been the difference between FE and NFE (Habbershon and Williams, 1999; Sirmon and Hitt, 2003; Sharma, 2004; García Pérez de Lema and Duréndez, 2007; Heck et al., 2008; Hack, 2009). Even though some research has recently been carried out into how the ownership and leadership structure influences the goal systems in FE, stakeholder satisfaction and stakeholder information have rarely been investigated (Schachner et al., 2006). According to Schachner et al. (2006), the goals of FE have to be supplemented by various stakeholder interests (Chua et al., 2009; Achleitner et al., 2010). Publications about stakeholder satisfaction in FE either are qualitative studies (Chrisman et al., 2005; Zellweger and Nason, 2008) or comprise only a small part of a bigger empirical investigation (Schachner et al., 2006; 1 Although a general understanding of FE has not been established thus far, such firms have always been seen critically in relation to other kinds of enterprises (Chrisman et al., 2005; Keese et al., 2010; Schraml, 2010). 