The impact of family commitment on firm innovativeness: The mediating role of resource stocks

Abstract

A variety of work has explored the firm level influences impacting innovativeness in family firms, yet little emphasis has been placed on the effect of the business family on family firm innovativeness. Drawing on the resource-based view and family commitment literatures, this analysis answers recent calls to consider the simultaneous influence the family system and the business system have on entrepreneurial activities. Using primary data, we study 275 family firms from multiple countries, to enhance our understanding of the fundamentals of family firm entrepreneurship. Specifically, we examine how family commitment influences family firm resource stocks (i.e., human, social, and financial), which consequently impact the entrepreneurial family firm outcome, innovativeness. Our findings suggest that some resource stocks (i.e., human and social capitals) mediate this relationship, whereas another resource stock (i.e., financial capital) does not. Our analysis demonstrates the differential impact of the disparate forms of capital on family firms’ innovativeness.