PEOPLE.IDEAS.PERFORMANCE

31 )520 $*(1&< 7+(25< 72 %(+$9,25$/ $*(1&< 7+(25< 7+528*+ 7+( &$6( 678'< 2) $ )$0,/< %86,1(66 *HUJHO\ )$5.$6 6]DEROFV ,05(+ University of Szeged Hungary ,1752'8&7,21 This chapter aims to review the literature of different management behavior models in family firms and then look for specified behavioral patterns in a case study. It is important to study how deeply the viewpoint of family business management has changed during the decades. Agency and stewardship theories are like opposites of each other. Managers follow only short-term goals in one, and only long-term goals in the other. Behavioral agency model is a new theory from the last decade to explain this controversy. With the methods of behavioral economics, maybe it can predict the results of decision more correctly than previous theories. The literature review is not based on a strict methodology, but it focuses on the managerial behavior effect on firm performance. We use family business and performance as it is in the literature: without a proper definition. Family business is a firm with the major ownership in the hands of a family, or at least under the strategic control of a family. Based on our research experience, even for entrepreneurs it is hard to decide if they are a family business or not. Sometimes they deny it, but the managers accept a successor from the family only. In other cases, managers say they have a family business because it is so familiar, despite the fact that not a single relative works there. Even if the literature sees our first example as a family business and the second as a non-family business, it is hard to make it black and white. How many generations distant cousins can be the founders of a family business? Performance is mostly based on financial measures, which makes the results one- sided and there are several various indicators in different studies. Therefore, evidence is often controversial and definitions vary widely (Rutherford, Kuratko, Holt, 2008). It would not be a good idea to decide only about a number of pro and contra results. Following the description of theories, we search the answer for the question whether these theories are reflected in the interviews made with the family members working in a family business in the framework of qualitative research. The studied family business is a small enterprise operating in the field of tourism, managed by the founder generation but the second generation is also actively involved in the life of the business. As each part of the interviews fits in different theoretical framework, or frameworks, at the end of the chapter we draw conclusions about the way it is practical to use these theories in further research based on the experience of the case study. $*(1&< 7+(25< The basis of agency theory is a two-actor (occasionally multi-actor) risk sharing, where the attitudes of the actors towards risk may be different. In a classic case of agency theory, the principal delegates a task for the agent, who completes it. Their connection is described as a metaphor of a contract. This cooperation is problematic because of two things.