Rodríguez-Gulías, María JesúsFernández López, SaraRodeiro-Pazos, David2023-07-102023-07-102023Rodríguez-Gulías, M.J., Fernández-López, S. & Rodeiro-Pazos, D. Disentangling the Effects of Knowledge Spillovers and Family Firm Nature on Innovative Performance: a Multilevel Approach. J Knowl Econ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-023-01323-81868-7865http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30860The idiosyncrasies of family firms (FFs) may enable or hamper their ability to exploit the region’s knowledge spillovers. To the date, this issue has not been addressed by the literature. The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to explore whether FF nature influences on firm innovative performance by acknowledging the fact that firm innovation happens in a certain location where firms are exposed to knowledge spillovers; and secondly, to analyse whether FF management plays a moderating role in the effects of regional knowledge spillovers on innovative outcomes. We used multilevel modelling and panel data methodology in a sample of 1191 Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2009–2016. By applying multilevel analysis and panel data methods, the results indicate that being part of a family group increases innovative performance, and this effect seems to be even more important in regions with low technological or human capital resourceseng© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Family frmsFirm innovative performanceKnowledge spilloversMultilevel modellingManufacturing frmsjournal article10.1007/s13132-023-01323-81868-7873open access