Entrepreneurship In Family Firms Research Articles

Entrepreneurship and Family Firm Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of An Emerging Field

This work carries out a comprehensive and systematic review of academic research on entrepreneurship in family firms applying bibliometric indicators. We review the literature published on these topics on the database Web of Knowledge's ocial ciences itation ndex. The results provided show that it is a relatively recent field of study, highly interconnected with high co‐citation between authors, which verifies compliance with Lotka's Law, and where the most productive authors and journals do not necessarily coincide with those most cited. Finally, the co‐word analysis has identified research topics classified into widely developed issues and specialized peripheral issues.

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN A SMALL FAMILY FIRM

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of organizational culture that fosters entrepreneurship in family firms. The entrepreneurial process is viewed as radical change in family firms due to emotions related to change in this kind of organization, which are more intense than nonfamily firms and makes the organization behaves the same way of previous generation. The culture of family firm Alfa is analyzed through the model of Hall, Melin and Nordqvist (2001) which classifies family business culture according to the fact that it is dominated by one or several family members, the degree of culture explicitness and cultural openness. A single case study was conducted and semi-structured interviews were made with family and non-family members of the family firm Alfa. It was concluded that, despite the fact the employees feel comfortable to express their ideas and critics, the values and norms are not clearly stated and the culture is dominated by the influence of the founder. These last two characteristics damage the entrepreneurial process in the family firm analyzed.

Governance and entrepreneurship in family firms: Agency, behavioral agency and resource-based comparisons

There remains a good deal of uncertainty as to whether and under which governance conditions family firms, even large, publicly traded ones, are entrepreneurial. We shall argue that agency theory, behavioral agency perspectives, and the resource-based view all posit both positive and negative influences regarding entrepreneurship in family firms, while empirical studies, collectively, are no less ambiguous in their findings. We use each of the above theories to propose various governance distinctions that can reconcile these contradictions and suggest when family firms will be most and least entrepreneurial.

The impact of succession on family business internationalisation

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the successor's perceptions of the major objective and subjective factors as well as networks that facilitate or inhibit the process of internationalisation of entrepreneurial family firms.Design/methodology/approach– Based on a qualitative methodological approach, the current study relies on case study evidence from a sample of six mature entrepreneurial family firms operating in different sectors.Findings– Relying on data collected, this study found that the perception of foreign market opportunities; international vision; successor's proactivity; innovative spirit and specific technical knowledge are relevant variables that initiate the process of internationalisation of a family firm within the context of (post-) succession. By contrast, the study did not find high evidence of the importance of speaking a foreign language and educational background. The study also confirmed that a disrupted process, such as succession, may re-position a mature domestic family firm in international markets.Research limitations/implications– A major limitation of this study relates to the sample size. Interpretation of these findings and their generalisation should therefore, be made with caution. In terms of future recommendations, an area that deserves particular attention relates to the development and transfer of social capital within family firms.Originality/value– This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature, and it particularly tries to understand the successors’ perceptions regarding interrelationships between succession and internationalisation. The findings provide valuable insights for policy makers and managers.

The Impact of Cultural Openness, Religion, and Nationalism on Entrepreneurial Intensity: Six Prototypical Cases of Turkish Family Firms

The literature on family business and entrepreneurship has not fully investigated the combined effects of cultural openness, religion, and nationalism on entrepreneurial intensity in a firm. This is especially true for firms outside of estern urope and orth merica. To address this gap, the study examines the impact of these factors using a set of six Turkish entrepreneurial family firms. Entrepreneurial intensity is evaluated on the basis of the formulation put forth by orris and exton (1996), highlighting the degree and frequency of entrepreneurship. Results show that slam is conducive to entrepreneurial intensity within Turkish context. Nationalistic firms show lower frequency and degree of entrepreneurial intensity.

Globalisation and the organisation of family philanthropy: A case of isomorphism?

This article is concerned with the effects of globalisation on the organisation of family philanthropy. It aims to assess whether the increased visibility and social and economic relevance of foundations connected to entrepreneurial families and family firms, has also involved the adoption of similar organisational models internationally over the last three decades. The article examines the interplay between family philanthropy and its institutional framework in the US, Germany and Spain by identifying two basic models of relationship between the entrepreneurial family, the family foundation, and the family firm: the non-controlling model, which continues to characterise most US foundations; and the controlling model, characteristic of most German foundations. In Spain, where large family foundations have traditionally adopted the controlling model, newer foundations have tended to adopt the non-controlling model. This reveals the mixed effects of globalisation and national cultural and institutional patterns on the organisational structure adopted by family philanthropy across Western countries.

The Effects of Family-Business Related Characteristics and Strategic Planning on Corporate Entrepreneurship

This study investigates the relationships between family-business related characteristics, strategic planning and corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. The effects of four characteristics (willingness to change, generational involvement, perceived technological opportunities, competitive aggressiveness) one of which (competitive aggressiveness) that has not been considered before is examined. Findings suggest that all the factors, except for generational involvement have a positive effect on corporate entrepreneurship. Willingness to change is found to have the most important effect on corporate entrepreneurship. Also strategic planning found to have a positive effect on corporate entrepreneurship.

Family business exit and private equity investment decisions: Governance implications for value creation

This paper was motivated by the increasing interest in the current debate for the entrepreneurial process in family firms. Little research to date has investigated the family business exit and this topic is mainly considered as a failure for entrepreneurial families. However, when uncertainties arise concerning generational succession, the family business exit may enable ownership transitions facilitating survival and long term value creation strategies. Among the exit options, a private equity buyout may balance the family’s wealth protection and the firm’s future growth. However, which family specific characteristics and strategic needs may affect the exit option still remains a neglected topic. Based on recent research addressing entrepreneurship in family firms and corporate governance literature, this paper develops a case study for investigating the bridging role of private equity buyout for going through strategic transitions in family firms. Findings suggest that a private equity buyout is a governance mechanism which may sustain an entrepreneurial transition by realigning family interests and goals. It may also allow the family commitment for improving organizational capabilities required by an entrepreneurial transition.

Portfolio entrepreneurship in family firms: a resource‐based perspective

AbstractThe phenomenon of portfolio entrepreneurship has attracted considerable scholarly attention and is particularly relevant in the family firm context. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the process through which portfolio entrepreneurship develops in family firms. We address this gap by analyzing four in‐depth, longitudinal family firm case studies from Europe and Latin America. Using a resource‐based perspective, we identify six distinct resource categories that are relevant to the portfolio entrepreneurship process. Furthermore, we reveal that their importance varies across time. Our resulting resource‐based process model of portfolio entrepreneurship in family firms makes valuable contributions to both theory and practice. Copyright © 2011 Strategic Management Society.

Resource orchestration in family firms: investigating how entrepreneurial orientation, generational involvement, and participative strategy affect performance

AbstractDrawing on the process of resource orchestration, we argue a co‐alignment of multiple factors is needed for family firms to increase performance through entrepreneurship. Specifically, we posit that entrepreneurial orientation provides the mobilizing vision to use the heterogeneous yet complementary knowledge and experiences offered by increased generational involvement toward entrepreneurship. However, without a coordinating mechanism, generational involvement leads to conflict and negative outcomes. When, instead, it is also coordinated via a participative strategy, performance gains are achieved. In sum, results suggest that realizing the benefits from entrepreneurship in family firms is a complicated matter affected by the synchronization of entrepreneurial orientation, generational involvement, and participative strategy. Copyright © 2011 Strategic Management Society.

Entrepreneurial behavior in family firms: A replication study

This study examines the entrepreneurial behavior of family firms by replicating a study undertaken in 2006 by Kellermanns and Eddleston [Kellermanns, F. W., & Eddleston, K. A. (2006). Corporate Entrepreneurship in Family Firms: A Family Perspective, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 30, pp. 809–830.]. Employing an extended replication-approach by applying a different national sample ( n = 413) from Austria, the relations between four distinct factors – willingness to change, generational involvement, perceived technological opportunities, and strategic planning – and the entrepreneurial behavior of family firms are examined, with the goal to extend the generalization of the original study's findings. Compared to the original study, the replication's results coincide in most parts. However, regarding the relation between strategic planning efforts and entrepreneurial behavior, the replication provides new insights into the entrepreneurial behavior of family firms by stressing the importance of considering organizational size in family-firm research. Accordingly, strategic planning in small family firms seems to comprise a certain ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ that directly influences the extent of their entrepreneurial behavior.

Exploring the Entrepreneurial Behavior of Family Firms: Does the Stewardship Perspective Explain Differences?

Drawing from stewardship theory, we investigated corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. We argued that stewardship culture determinants––comprehensive strategic decision making, participative governance, long–term orientation, and human capital––differentiate the most entrepreneurial family firms. Based on a study of 179 family firms, we showed that comprehensive strategic decision making and long–term orientation contribute to corporate entrepreneurship. Additionally, family–to–firm unity enhanced the positive effects participative governance and long–term orientation have on corporate entrepreneurship. While we found that family–to–firm unity can compensate for low human capital, unexpectedly, we also found that family–to–firm unity can dampen the positive relationship between human capital and corporate entrepreneurship.

Institutionalization and corporate entrepreneurship in family firms

This study investigates the relationship between institutionalization factors and corporate entrepreneurship in Turkish family firms. The data was obtained from the responses of 244 managers in family firms. The results show that there were significant relationships between the dimension of institutionalization and the dimension of corporate entrepreneurship. While automation affects all dimensions (risk taking, proactivity and innovativeness) of corporate entrepreneurship, autonomy, professionalization, transparency positively, formalization affects the dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship negatively. Key words: Institutionalization, corporate entrepreneurship, family firms, Turkey.

ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION, GENERATIONAL INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATIVE STRATEGY IN FAMILY FIRMS

To better understand the entrepreneurship in family firms, we consider the joint interaction effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), generational involvement and participative strategy. Drawing...

Strategic entrepreneurial behaviours in family businesses

This introductory article shares the highlights of the articles in this special issue of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management – entrepreneurial behaviour in family businesses. Collectively, these articles suggest the importance to future orientation, disciplined regeneration and strategic professionalisation of entrepreneurial family firms that sustain high performance across life cycles of individual leaders and their businesses. Comparisons of findings of studies in this issue with other recent literature on family firms, reveals several areas for future research and implications for practice.

Pre- and post-succession governance philosophies in entrepreneurial family firms

Most studies of succession in family firms concentrate on the succession event and/or on the periods immediately prior or subsequent to that event. We wished to look back at a much longer time period in order to more fully characterize the governance philosophies both before and after succession as well as the related transformations between these periods. Our qualitative study of 13 successions in entrepreneurial family firms reveals changes in the governance roster as well as in the goals, roles, political structures, behavior and climate associated with the principals of these organizations, and based on these we suggest several testable propositions. We conclude with an integrative gemeinschaft–gesellschaft framework that encapsulates the governance philosophies of the pre- and post-succession periods and the transformations between them.

Organizational learning and entrepreneurship in family firms: exploring the moderating effect of ownership and cohesion

Organizational learning can significantly improve family firms’ ability to counter by stimulating entrepreneurship. Applying the behavioral theory of the firm, this study empirically examines the effect of family ownership on the breadth, depth, and speed of organizational learning. Each of these dimensions can influence entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the effect of ownership on organizational learning depends on family cohesiveness, the extent to which members of the owner family feel closeness, mutual solidarity, and the desire to stick together. Data from 741 firms show that family ownership is positively associated with the breadth and speed of learning but is negatively associated with the depth of learning. Though cohesiveness does not alleviate the negative effect of family ownership on the depth of learning, it amplifies the effect of family ownership on the breadth and speed of learning. Organizational learning, especially its breadth and depth, positively influences the pace of family firms’ entrepreneurship

A farewell to the business: Championing exit and continuity in entrepreneurial family firms

What factors influence exit from the founder's business and subsequent entrepreneurial renewal in a generational family firm? Guided by this research question, we trace the development of the Italian Falck Group from its inception as a steel company in 1906 – ascension as the largest privately owned steel producer in Italy – losses in the 1970s and 1980s leading to business exit from steel industry in the 1990s – followed by successful entry in the renewable energy business. A combination of insights from the literature and triangulation of data from multiple primary and secondary sources leads to the development of a model describing how inhibitors of exit from the founder's business can be transformed into facilitators of change. The critical role of farsighted ‘family champion of continuity’ is found central in redirecting the family from its anchoring in past activities to focus on future entrepreneurial endeavours. While the commitment to the founder's business continues, the family champion aided by business savvy and astute non-family executives ably modifies its meaning of ‘continuity of the founder's business’ from ‘steel production’ to ‘continuity of the entrepreneurial spirit of the family’, hence preserving the institutional identity. Insights from this study can help generational family firms which plan to exit from a failing course of action to regenerate so as to create trans-generational value.

Book Review: Hoy, F., & Sharma, P. (2009). Entrepreneurial Family Firms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Book Review: Hoy, F., & Sharma, P. (2009). Entrepreneurial Family Firms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Exploring business incubation from a family perspective: How start-up family firms experience the incubation process in two Australian incubators

This qualitative study explored how family start-up firms, housed in an incubator during their first three years of operation, experienced the business incubation process. There is limited research conducted on family business experiences during the start-up phase when money is tight, entrepreneurial activity is basic and business know-how is in its infancy (Dyer, 2003). Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify the reasons why start-up entrepreneurs choose to locate their firms in an incubator setting and how two incubators assisted the family firms to build their business going through the incubation process.The research sample consisted of twelve start-up entrepreneurial family firms of which seven were located in the Brunswick Business Incubator (BBI) and five located within the Monash Enterprise Centre (MEC) in Melbourne, Australia. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews then analysed using NVivo7 following a grounded theory approach. The findings showed the majority of start-up family firms moved into an incubator environment because they were not familiar with business practices, felt isolated working from home, were hoping to share business ‘know how’, to find other family business entrepreneurs, and hoping to find a small business ‘community in which they could participate and network.In addition, the findings revealed that for family start-ups, the boundaries between personal relationships and business relationships appeared to dissolve or overlap, and relationships with other tenants and the incubator manager developed from a strong trust base and camaraderie.The value of this study is threefold. First, the study’s findings contribute to Habbershon, Williams and MacMillans (2003) assertions that viewing family firms as a meta-system is meaningful, as it sheds light on the organisational behaviour of small family firms based within incubator environments. Secondly, Chua, Chrisman and Steiers (2003) and Dyer’s (2003) concerns that family variables are regularly omitted from the main stream management literature, and third, Hackett and Dilts’(2004a:56) observation that there is a shortage of variables “explaining how and why the incubation process leads to specific incubation outcomes”.The analysis uncovered emerging themes which were similar to each of the family businesses, yet there were subtle differences within each theme. These findings support Melin and Nordqvists (2007) assertion that whilst there is emphasis on similar characteristics displayed by family businesses, there are differences within the categories that researchers often underestimate. Given the lack of studies addressing both the ‘within family category research and family businesses located in incubators’ research, this field study identifies and addresses a gap in the family business literature whilst also contributing to incubation research.