Purpose.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the direct impacts on financial performance and the added value of production in family businesses, considering the efficiency of intellectual capital as determining variables.

Design/methodology/approach.

A comparative analysis between family businesses (FB) and non-family businesses (NFB) is proposed to explore significant differences in the impacts on financial performance and added value of companies, through multivariate techniques. It contributes to the literature on the family business, and its performance from an analytical framework that incorporates the theory of intellectual capital and the measurement of its impact.

Findings.

The findings show that the value-added coefficient of intellectual capital (VAICTM) is a determining factor in the financial performance of companies and, to a greater extent, in the FB than in their NFB counterparts. It is also verified that the efficiency of intellectual capital in the FB has a direct and greater relationship with the value added of production (VAEmp), with respect to non-family businesses, being an important factor in predicting the performance of companies.

Practical implications.

The findings allow us to conclude the importance of efficient management of intangible factors in companies, such as intellectual capital, becoming a competitive advantage factor.

Originality/value.

The document explores the relationship and impact of VAICTM in family businesses that belong to an emerging economy and demonstrates the existence of differences between FB and NFB, at the level of intangible factors under a comparative analysis.