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Abstract Identifying and managing innovations are of relevance to researchers and practitioners alike. Since innovation in tourism and hospitality appears more complex than in other industries and family dynamics are an additional factor to consider as most firms in tourism and hospitality are family firms, this study compares the innovativeness of tourism/hospitality family firms (THFF) and its effect on financial performance to that in non-tourism/-hospitality industries (non-THFF). Drawing on family business literature, we also analyze the applicability of control mechanisms to manage the effectiveness of innovativeness. Findings from a sample of 180 firms (82 THFF and 98 non-THFF) show that innovativeness in THFF is as relevant for performance as in non-THFF. However, only in non-THFF control mechanisms show to be relevant, but have a significant negative moderating effect on the innovativeness-performance relationship. We interpret that in THFF control mechanisms are substituted by dynamics of regional and social embeddedness.