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The influence of the owner family on managerial decision-making in family firms is undisputed. However, we know relatively little about how this influence is exerted. Based on upper echelon theory, and in the context of innovation management, we explore the owner family's influence via collaborative dialogue. Quantitative analyses based on 116 family firms, substantiated by 12 qualitative interviews within seven family firms, show that an owner family's collaborative dialogue minimizes the influence of an owner manager's attitude toward risk on TMT innovativeness. On the other hand, the collaborative dialogue strengthens the impact TMT innovativeness has on firm-level innovative capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]