Abstract
The decision by family firms to disclose their family nature to stakeholders raises important questions about the implications of communicating a family identity within these firms. In this paper, a between-subjects experiment was conducted. Two identical brands, differing only in the inclusion of a ‘family firm’ tag, were presented to two groups of customers. The findings reveal that customers associate family firms with higher perceived quality, which leads to increased purchase intention and a greater willingness to pay. Additionally, we find that nonfamily firm brands are perceived as less authentic than family brands across all dimensions. Furthermore, authenticity is found to mediate the association between perceived quality and the disclosure of family identity. Several insights and practical implications are derived from these findings.