Socioemotional Wealth, Generational Involvement, and the Manifestation of Entrepreneurial Orientation within Saudi Family Firms

As a predominant form of business organization, family firms have attracted increasing attention by scholars, and especially by those researching entrepreneurial orientation with the aim of better understanding of entrepreneurial activities pursued by enterprises. However, the literature on the confluence of entrepreneurial orientation and family firms has paid scant attention to the influence of affective and emotional factors. To cover this research gap, the authors analyze the impact of affective commitment and concern for socioemotional wealth preservation on entrepreneurial orientation. To do so, they performed an empirical study using the data collected from 342 small and mid-sized family firms from Portugal, a country where family firms are under-researched even though they make up the backbone of the economy. Results show that both affective commitment and socioemotional wealth positively impact entrepreneurial orientation, pointing to the need to further research the relationships between such factors and strategic behaviors in the family business context.

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Affective and Emotional Determinants of Entrepreneurial Orientation Within Family Firms

10.4018/978-1-6684-3550-2.ch036 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 794-818

Author(s):

Remedios Hernández-Linares ◽

María Concepción López-Fernández ◽

María José Naranjo-Sánchez ◽

Laura Victoria Fielden

Keyword(s):

Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽

Affective Commitment ◽

Family Firms ◽

Socioemotional Wealth ◽

Business Context ◽

Emotional Factors ◽

Strategic Behaviors ◽

Scant Attention ◽

Entrepreneurial Activities ◽

The Impact

As a predominant form of business organization, family firms have attracted increasing attention by scholars, and especially by those researching entrepreneurial orientation with the aim of better understanding of entrepreneurial activities pursued by enterprises. However, the literature on the confluence of entrepreneurial orientation and family firms has paid scant attention to the influence of affective and emotional factors. To cover this research gap, the authors analyze the impact of affective commitment and concern for socioemotional wealth preservation on entrepreneurial orientation. To do so, they performed an empirical study using the data collected from 342 small and mid-sized family firms from Portugal, a country where family firms are under-researched even though they make up the backbone of the economy. Results show that both affective commitment and socioemotional wealth positively impact entrepreneurial orientation, pointing to the need to further research the relationships between such factors and strategic behaviors in the family business context.

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The effect of socioemotional wealth on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance

BRQ Business Research Quarterly ◽

10.1177/2340944420941438 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 174-192

Author(s):

Remedios Hernández-Linares ◽

Franz W Kellermanns ◽

María Concepción López-Fernández ◽

Soumodip Sarkar

Keyword(s):

Family Business ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽

Business Performance ◽

Family Firms ◽

Jel Classification ◽

Moderating Effect ◽

Socioemotional Wealth ◽

Competitive Aggressiveness ◽

The Relationship

This study examines how five key entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions—risk taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy—affect family business performance, as well as the moderating effect of socioemotional wealth (SEW) on these relationships. The findings, based on a sample of 609 Spanish and Portuguese family firms, reveal that not all EO dimensions are equally important for performance, as only proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy were significant. However, we also find that the EO–performance relationship is affected by concern for SEW preservation, as our SEW measure moderates risk taking positively and innovativeness negatively. JEL CLASSIFICATION: L20; L26; M10

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