1,720,981 research outputs found
A new look on family business internationalization: noneconomic goals in family firms and strategic decisions
Full text linkFamily firms are defined as those organizations owned and usually also managed by a controlling family (Shanker and Astrachan, 1996; Lansberg, 1999). The importance of family firms in developed and emerging markets as well as among top MNEs is progressively growing (Birley, 2001; Carr and Bateman, 2009). Accordingly, the internationalization of family business is receiving increasing attention by scholars and developing into a significant research area (Pukall and Calabrò, 2014). Prior research has demonstrated that when family firms go international they show a peculiar behavior compared to firms with different ownership structures and related to the distinctive character of the family business (Thomas and Graves, 2005; Fernandez and Nieto, 2006; Claver et al., 2009): given the duality of economic and non-economic goals, a growing body of research has demonstrated that family involvement in ownership and/or management deeply affects firms’ strategic decisions, including internationalization. Nevertheless this field of inquiry is still in its infancy and the distinctive features of family firms’ international behavior have been only partially addressed (Kontinen and Ojala, 2010).
In order to contribute to international business and family firms literature, the dissertation is a collection of three studies organized as follows. The first study is a theoretical and empirical investigation on the relationship about different family ownership structures and entry modes. To develop this study I cooperated with “Università Politecnica delle Marche” and used their dataset on Italian medium-sized family firms. Relying on a sample of 368 foreign market entries related to 204 Italian medium-sized family firms, I show that different types of ownership structures within family
firms differently influence entry modes. I also provide evidence that non-family managers moderate the relation between family ownership and entry modes strategic decisions. Whereas prior studies have focused on the relationship between family involvement in the ownership and/or management influences the degree of internationalization, this study highlights how family firms enter into foreign market and how differences within the family ownership structure may differently drive strategic decisions.
The second study focuses on family leaders’ strategic decision making and the subsidiary ownership policy i.e. the choice between forming a Joint Venture (JV) or setting up a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary (WOS). This study – developed in cooperation with Bocconi University – relies on a sample of 3,939 subsidiary ownership policies run by 586 family-controlled firms with more than 50 million of euros of revenues. I show that family leaders are either more or less willing to preserve their Socioemotional Wealth (SEW) – entering the foreign market by a wholly owned subsidiary – in relation to the level of performance hazard, the identity fit between the family and the business and the cultural distance between the home and the host country. This study contributes to the growing debate on the contextual nature of SEW preservation logic by theoretically and empirically challenging the prevalent notion that major managerial decision in family-controlled firms are driven by SEW preservation goals, even if doing so might entail higher financial risks or lower performance (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007; 2010).
Finally, the third study is a conceptual investigation about succession in family firms. Prior research demonstrated that succession is directly related to internationalization according to the idea that the involvement of new generation in the ownership and/or management often stimulates and fosters internationalization (Fernández and Nieto, 2005; Menéndez and Requejo, 2005). Nevertheless only 30% of family firms is thought to survive the leadership passage to the second generation and only 10% makes it to the third generation (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983). Thus the succession success is a high critical and fundamental step for the firm survival as well as the survival of the family within the firm. This study theoretically investigates how agency problems occurring between the
predecessor and successors during succession – in terms of misalignments and goal divergence – may affect the succession success. More precisely I split the succession process into three different stages and in each stage I analyze how the different way the decision-making power is shared between the predecessor and successor moderates the relation between agency problems and succession success.Family firms are defined as those organizations owned and usually also managed by a controlling family (Shanker and Astrachan, 1996; Lansberg, 1999). The importance of family firms in developed and emerging markets as well as among top MNEs is progressively growing (Birley, 2001; Carr and Bateman, 2009). Accordingly, the internationalization of family business is receiving increasing attention by scholars and developing into a significant research area (Pukall and Calabrò, 2014). Prior research has demonstrated that when family firms go international they show a peculiar behavior compared to firms with different ownership structures and related to the distinctive character of the family business (Thomas and Graves, 2005; Fernandez and Nieto, 2006; Claver et al., 2009): given the duality of economic and non-economic goals, a growing body of research has demonstrated that family involvement in ownership and/or management deeply affects firms’ strategic decisions, including internationalization. Nevertheless this field of inquiry is still in its infancy and the distinctive features of family firms’ international behavior have been only partially addressed (Kontinen and Ojala, 2010).
In order to contribute to international business and family firms literature, the dissertation is a collection of three studies organized as follows. The first study is a theoretical and empirical investigation on the relationship about different family ownership structures and entry modes. To develop this study I cooperated with “Università Politecnica delle Marche” and used their dataset on Italian medium-sized family firms. Relying on a sample of 368 foreign market entries related to 204 Italian medium-sized family firms, I show that different types of ownership structures within family
firms differently influence entry modes. I also provide evidence that non-family managers moderate the relation between family ownership and entry modes strategic decisions. Whereas prior studies have focused on the relationship between family involvement in the ownership and/or management influences the degree of internationalization, this study highlights how family firms enter into foreign market and how differences within the family ownership structure may differently drive strategic decisions.
The second study focuses on family leaders’ strategic decision making and the subsidiary ownership policy i.e. the choice between forming a Joint Venture (JV) or setting up a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary (WOS). This study – developed in cooperation with Bocconi University – relies on a sample of 3,939 subsidiary ownership policies run by 586 family-controlled firms with more than 50 million of euros of revenues. I show that family leaders are either more or less willing to preserve their Socioemotional Wealth (SEW) – entering the foreign market by a wholly owned subsidiary – in relation to the level of performance hazard, the identity fit between the family and the business and the cultural distance between the home and the host country. This study contributes to the growing debate on the contextual nature of SEW preservation logic by theoretically and empirically challenging the prevalent notion that major managerial decision in family-controlled firms are driven by SEW preservation goals, even if doing so might entail higher financial risks or lower performance (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007; 2010).
Finally, the third study is a conceptual investigation about succession in family firms. Prior research demonstrated that succession is directly related to internationalization according to the idea that the involvement of new generation in the ownership and/or management often stimulates and fosters internationalization (Fernández and Nieto, 2005; Menéndez and Requejo, 2005). Nevertheless only 30% of family firms is thought to survive the leadership passage to the second generation and only 10% makes it to the third generation (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983). Thus the succession success is a high critical and fundamental step for the firm survival as well as the survival of the family within the firm. This study theoretically investigates how agency problems occurring between the
predecessor and successors during succession – in terms of misalignments and goal divergence – may affect the succession success. More precisely I split the succession process into three different stages and in each stage I analyze how the different way the decision-making power is shared between the predecessor and successor moderates the relation between agency problems and succession success.LUISS PhD Thesi
Elettricità Futura: the challenge for integration, innovation and sustainability in the electric industry
Full text linkFamily firms and international equity-based entry modes : a systematic literature review
No full textPurpose - Although research on family firms (FF) internationalization has seen a boom over the past 30 years, the understanding of how FFs internationalize with equity modes is still fragmented. Indeed, the majority of extant literature on this topic identifies internationalization with export, overlooking the alternative equity-based entry modes FFs have when entering a foreign country. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap with a framework-based systematic literature review on the topic to improve the understanding of this phenomenon and propose a way forward.Design/methodology/approach - This study conducted a framework-based systematic literature review of 93 papers published between 1993 and 2021.Findings - This study adds to the current debate on FFs internationalization by integrating previous review efforts with a deeper investigation of FFs' equity-based entry modes. This study contributes to this body of knowledge in the family business research by synthetizing and systematizing extant literature with a framework-based approach from the international business (IB) field. In so doing, this study builds a stronger link between these two areas of research. Finally, research gaps and promising research avenues for future studies are also presented.Originality/value - This study responds to the call to create a dialogue between the FFs and IB fields by systematizing the extant body of knowledge and integrating the FF literature with one of the most widely used frameworks (Pan and Tse, 2000) on entry modes in the IB domain.</p
Family business going abroad: the effect of family ownership on foreign market entry mode decisions
Full text linkResearch on family firms’ internationalization is growing, but empirical findings are mixed. To reconcile prior studies, we focus on strategic decisions related to internationalization, specifically the foreign market entry mode selection process. We suggest that the choice about entry mode is especially significant for family owners because it may either align or conflict with two key family-related goals: maintaining family control and keeping a long-term orientation of the business. We argue that these goals have different weights within family firms according to differences in ownership structure, with significant implications for international strategic decisions. We rely on a sample of medium-sized family-owned Italian firms and show that different types of family ownership structures affect entry mode decisions differently and specifically influence the time horizon of the foreign investment and willingness to cooperate with external actors. We also provide empirical evidence that the presence of a non-family manager moderates the relationship between family ownership and entry mode decisions. Our study expands on prior research by highlighting how family firms enter foreign markets and pointing out the strategic implications of family firm heterogeneity
Out of the comfort zone! Family leaders’ subsidiary ownership choices and the role of vulnerabilities
No full textBased on the socioemotional wealth approach and a sample of 3,904 subsidiary ownership choices made by 586 family firms, this study shows that family-managed firms (i.e., those family firms with a family member in a leadership position) prefer wholly owned subsidies over joint ventures when entering foreign markets. Family-managed firms are also more likely to revise their subsidiary ownership choices and form joint ventures when in vulnerability conditions, that is, when they experience performance below aspirations and when entering a culturally distant market
Nearby or Faraway? Family Firms’ FDI Location Choices under Internal and External Threats
No full textStemming from the bifurcation bias approach, this article investigates whether there is a relationship between family ownership concentration and cultural distance in foreign direct investments’ (FDIs’) portfolio and to what extent contingency factors, such as internal (below target performance) or external (global financial crisis) threats, can impact this relationship. Our findings suggest that family firms with concentrated ownership are more affected by bifurcation bias, pursuing FDIs in less culturally distant locations, while also showing a greater ability to fix such bias, and undertake FDIs in more culturally distant locations when the occurrence of internal and external threats forces family owners to revise their prioritie
Imprese familiari ed entrata nei mercati esteri: il ruolo del coinvolgimento della famiglia nel business
No full textWhen family firms decide to internationalize, they show a peculiar behavior compared to non-family business and linked to the fact the firm is family owned and managed. Despite the growing and recent body of literature about this topic and the amount of contributions made so far, it is still not clear the question of what and to what extent the family character of a firm has an impact on internationalization. In order to contribute to this debate we investigate both theoretically and empirically the relation between family involvement in management and foreign market entry modes
Reporting strategies: What makes family firms beat around the bush? Family-related antecedents of annual report readability
No full textWe investigate the heterogeneity of reporting strategies across family firms by focusing on the readability of
annual reports. Adopting the socioemotional wealth perspective, we introduce three family-related antecedents
of annual report readability to accounting and family business literature: family power, the overlap between family
and firm name, and generational stage. Our findings, based on the textual analysis of 288 annual report readability
increases at higher levels of family power, decreases at later generational stages, and when the firm carries the
family name
Transforming entrepreneurial orientation into performance in family SMEs: Are nonfamily CEOs better than family CEOs?
No full textWe draw on the agency and stewardship perspectives to determine whether and how the effect of family leadership on the entrepreneurial orientation-performance relationship in small and medium (SME) family firms is contingent on the main life cycle dimensions: firm size, generational stage, and board of directors’ engagement. The analyses of 284 Belgian family SMEs reveal that nonfamily leaders outperform family leaders in transforming entrepreneurial orientation into performance in larger firms, whereas family leaders outpace nonfamily leaders when the board has a strong engagement in serving the CEO
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