Abstract
This explorative research paper illuminates the governance systems in Spanish family businesses, and evaluates the extent to which they pursue good governance practise both in the business and family areas. Empirical evidence is drawn from a database of 112 sizeable Spanish firms, and the results show the absolute dominance of the leading family in the ownership, control and management of sample firms. Approximately half of the members of the board tend to be insiders and more than two‐thirds are family members. It emerges that generational firms (with third generation and beyond owner‐managers) exhibit greater similarity in their governance structures to first generation firms than second generation ones; this might be due to the so‐called “pruning” which is used as a survival mechanism. Overall, it emerges that family firms have a very low degree of board regulation by formal rules and family governance systems are hardly developed.