Abstract: The research on family businesses in former socialist countries in general is very scarce and research findings about family businesses in other contexts may not be directly applicable to economies in Central and Eastern Europe. The aim of the present study is to explore differences in firm performance between Bulgarian family and non-family firms. It contributes to the fields of family business literature and performance research by providing hypotheses about organizational characteristics which mediate the effect of the family business status on firm performance. Our hypotheses are guided by the resource-based view of the firm and previous empirical research on determinants of performance. The results reported in this study advance our knowledge about firm performance among family and non-family businesses in a transition context and have important practical implications.