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Editorial verdict
Methodologically competent regional study with meaningful theoretical contributions on mediation pathways, but limited generalisability due to single-region sampling, cross-sectional design, and reliance on subjective self-reported performance measures — treat the competitive mediation finding on religious values as theoretically interesting but requiring longitudinal replication.
Executive summary
This study addresses the underexplored relationship between traditional cultural leadership and family business performance in the Indonesian context, where approximately 70% of family businesses fail to survive beyond the first generation. The authors argue that Minangkabau Universal Leadership — a multidimensional construct integrating local cultural, religious, and learning values — generates heterogeneous performance pathways, with organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) functioning as a key behavioural mechanism. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design with 240 family businesses in West Sumatra, Indonesia, and analysed via partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the study finds that local cultural values positively affect performance both directly and indirectly through OCB (complementary partial mediation). Learning values exert a dominant direct effect on performance without significant OCB mediation, suggesting cognitive-strategic rather than socio-emotional pathways. Most notably, religious values display a negative direct effect on performance but a significant positive indirect effect through OCB, constituting competitive mediation. The study concludes that traditional leadership is not a monolithic construct, and that disaggregating its constituent dimensions reveals fundamentally different governance, behavioural, and cognitive mechanisms linking culturally embedded leadership to firm outcomes in matrilineal, collectivist contexts.
Key insights
- 1Religious values exhibit a competitive mediation pattern: a negative direct effect on family business performance is offset by a significant positive indirect effect channelled through OCB, suggesting that religious leadership constrains performance when enacted as direct decisional logic but enhances it by activating discretionary employee behaviour.
- 2Learning values operate through cognitive and strategic pathways — exerting a strong direct effect on performance without materialising significant OCB mediation — indicating that intergenerationally transmitted wisdom functions as adaptive organisational capability rather than a socio-emotional reciprocity trigger.
- 3Local cultural values generate a dual performance mechanism, simultaneously contributing to performance directly through institutionalised governance logic and indirectly through OCB, demonstrating that communally grounded leadership in matrilineal collectivist contexts activates both coordination efficiency and discretionary employee contributions.
Practical takeaways
- Family business governance structures that institutionalise culturally grounded decision-making norms — such as consensus-based deliberation and kinship accountability — may activate both direct performance improvements and indirect behavioural contributions from employees, as evidenced by the complementary mediation pattern of local cultural values.
- Intergenerational knowledge transfer mechanisms appear to influence performance primarily through cognitive and strategic channels rather than through citizenship behaviour, indicating that succession planning focused on embedded learning and adaptive problem-solving may operate via different organisational levers than those targeting employee discretionary behaviours.
Frameworks mentioned
Minangkabau Universal Leadership
A leadership model rooted in the traditional cultural and social values of the Minangkabau community of West Sumatra, Indonesia, integrating local cultural values, Islamic religious principles, and intergenerational learning values as constituent dimensions.
References
- Thoha and Chrysilla (2026).The interplay of Chinese and local cultures in shaping leadership styles and employee performance.
- Andriani et al. (2024).Entrepreneurial orientation, business performance, and traditional leadership style.
- Pratono and Han (2022).From family business orientation to organisational citizenship behaviour: Prosocial behaviour in family business performance.
- Eddleston et al. (2018).Managing family members: How monitoring and collaboration affect extra-role behavior in family firms.
- Islam et al. (2024).Transformational leadership in Indonesian diversified-cultural SME sector: An investigation of the settlement criteria of job performance.
- Ning et al. (2011).The relationship between authority leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: The role of traditionality in Chinese context.
- Sulastri et al. (2018).The internalization and implementation of Minangkabau alternative leadership values for formal and informal leaders in Padang.
- Organ et al. (2006).Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature, antecedents, and consequences.
- Streukens and Leroi-Werelds (2016).Bootstrapping and PLS-SEM: A step-by-step guide to get more out of your bootstrap results.
- Henseler et al. (2015).A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling.
- Hair et al. (2019).Partial least squares structural equation modeling-based discrete choice modeling: An illustration in modeling retailer choice.
Source & Provenance
sajhrm
Syahrizal Syahrizal, Mega A. Zona, Chichi Andriani, Rino Rino, Yuki Fitria
September 23, 2026
Research Study
Asia-Pacific
Original source metadata is preserved. AI analysis is generated separately.
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