Abstract: Based on the theory of social emotional wealth, from the perspectives of farming culture and family control, this paper explores the differences in family involvement, family ownership and chairman authority of family firms under the influence of regional cultures. Using a sample consisting of all 517 family firms listed on the China Shenzhen SME and GEM, we apply the regression analysis to test the hypothesis. The results show that, compared with dry farming culture, under the influence of paddy farming culture, which is more prevalent in family collective production, local family firms are more inclined to introduce family members to participate in business operations, to maintain a higher proportion of family ownership. Meanwhile, within the family, family firms in paddy fields are also more inclined to strengthen the chairman authority. The research results prove that regional culture is also one of the factors affecting the governance structure of family firms. This paper explains the heterogeneity of family firms based on the macro factor.

Key words: regional culture, family firm, governance structure, farming culture, family control