Strategic change in firms has several different motivations.This study examines the preserving of socioemotional wealth as a motive for strategic change in private family firms by looking at the relationship between performance aspiration and strategic change,and exploring the moderating effects of founder control,CEO personality,slack resource and environmental munificence based on the socioemotional wealth concept and behavioral theory of the firm.The empirical evidence from listed family firms in China supports the following arguments: (1) Poor performance relative to organizational aspiration level triggers family firms' strategic change,and larger gap of performance below aspiration incurs higher level of strategic change.(2) The existence of founder strengthens the magnitude of strategic change because of attaching more weight and incentive to preserve socioemotional wealth.(3) CEO openness enhances the ability and freedom of decision-making and leads to higher level of strategic change.(4) The more abundant resource family firms have,the higher magnitude of strategic change occurs under the expanding gap of performance below aspiration.This study suggests that socioemotional wealth may play a role as motive for strategic change of family firms when firm performance is below organizational aspiration.