Family Businesses and Digital Entrepreneurship Adoption: A Conceptual Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-364
Author(s):  
Sami Basly ◽  
Amira Hammouda

Despite the prevalence of family businesses around the world, research on their contribution to the digital economy is still needed. A primary appraisal of the characteristics of the family business and the features of digital entrepreneurship suggests that the two phenomena are conflicting. Indeed, the most common descriptions of family businesses convey the idea that they favour stability to change and slow evolutions to upheavals and disruptions. This article attempts to answer the question: How could family businesses embrace the values and overcome the hindrances to digital entrepreneurship? To this end, this article suggests a conceptual model of digital entrepreneurship adoption in family firms. Based on the socioemotional wealth logic, we first describe the main variables influencing digital entrepreneurship adoption and then analyse the moderating influence of family involvement in the firm on the relationships between these variables and digital entrepreneurship adoption. Theoretical contributions and practical insights are presented.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanas Nik Nikolov ◽  
Yuan Wen

PurposeThis paper brings together research on advertising, family business, and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm to examine performance differences between publicly traded US family vs non-family firms. The purpose of this paper is to understand the heterogeneity of family vs non-family firm advertising after such firms become publicly traded.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on the RBV of the firm, as well as on extensive empirical literature in family business and advertising research to empirically examine the differences between family and non-family firms in terms of performance.FindingsUsing panel data from over 2,000 companies across ten years, this research demonstrates that family businesses have higher advertising intensity than competitors, and achieve higher performance returns on their advertising investments, relative to non-family competitors. The results suggest that the “familiness” of public family firms is an intangible resource that, when combined with their advertising investments, affords family businesses a relative advantage compared to non-family businesses.Research limitations/implicationsFamily involvement in publicly traded firms may contribute toward a richer resource endowment and result in creating synergistic effects between firm “familiness” and the public status of the firm. The paper contributes toward the RBV of the firm and the advertising literature. Limitations include the lack of qualitative data to ground the findings and potential moderating effects.Practical implicationsUnderstanding how family firms’ advertising spending influences their consequent performance provides new information to family firms’ owners and management, as well as investors. The authors suggest that the “familiness” of public family firms may provide a significant advantage over their non-family-owned competitors.Social implicationsThe implications for society include that the family firm as an organizational form does not need to be relegated to a second-class citizen status in the business world: indeed, combining family firms’ characteristics within a publicly traded platform may provide firm performance benefits which benefit the founding family and other stakeholders.Originality/valueThis study contributes by highlighting the important influence of family involvement on advertising investment in the public family firm, a topic which has received limited attention. Second, it also integrates public ownership in family firms with the family involvement–advertising–firm performance relationship. As such, it uncovers a new pathway through which the family effect is leveraged to increase firm performance. Third, this study also contributes to the advertising and resource building literatures by identifying advertising as an additional resource which magnifies the impact of the bundle of resources available to the public family firm. Fourth, the use of an extensive panel data set allows for a more complex empirical investigation of the inherently dynamic relationships in the data and thus provides a contribution to the empirical stream of research in family business.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismael Barros ◽  
Juan Hernangómez ◽  
Natalia Martin-Cruz

The socioemotional wealth (SEW) related to emotional endowments accumulated in the business by the family, is one of the most important features that differentiate the family firms of other organizations. However, there are few studies developed in the context of the antecedents and consequences of the building and use of SEW in the family business. Therefore, this study, using a sample of Spanish family firms that are non-publicly traded, explains how family influence affects the building and use of SEW and, thus, the organizational effectiveness of the family firm. The results indicate mixed results regarding the impact of the family involvement on the essence. Those suggest a positive relationship between building and use of SEW and organizational effectiveness of the family business.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-127
Author(s):  
Ondřej Machek ◽  
Jiří Hnilica

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the satisfaction with economic and non-economic goals achievement is related to the overall satisfaction with the business of the CEO-owner, and whether family involvement moderates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey among 323 CEO-owners of family and non-family businesses operating in the Czech Republic, the authors employ the OLS hierarchical regression analysis and test the moderating effects of family involvement on the relationship between the satisfaction with different goals attainment and the overall satisfaction with the business. Findings The main finding is that family and non-family CEO-owner’s satisfaction does not differ significantly when economic goals (profit maximisation, sales growth, increase in market share or firm value) and firm-oriented non-economic goals (satisfaction of employees, corporate reputation) are being achieved; both classes of goals increase the overall satisfaction with the firm and the family involvement does not strengthen this relationship. However, when it comes to external non-economic goals related to the society or environment, there is a significant and positive moderating effect of family involvement. Originality/value The study contributes to the family business literature. First, to date, most of the studies focused on family business goals have been qualitative, thus not allowing for generalisation of findings. Second, there is a lack of evidence on the ways in which family firms integrate their financial and non-financial goals. Third, the authors contribute to the literature on the determinants of personal satisfaction with the business for CEOs, which has been the focus on a relatively scarce number of studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitor Braga ◽  
Aldina Correia ◽  
Alexandra Braga ◽  
Sofia Lemos

Purpose The success of the family firms cannot be detached from the current paradigm where, within the present economic conditions, economic agents struggle to exploit the existing opportunities and need to take into account the risks associated to the international arena and the innovation processes. The internationalisation and innovation processes may trigger resistance within family business due to their relatively higher difficulty to take risks and to invest in industries outside the scope of their original core business. Innovation and internationalisation processes become relevant strategies for the family firms’ continuity and success. In line with such fact, the aim of this paper is to contribute with insights regarding the processes of innovation and internationalisation within family businesses. In particular, this paper aims to assess the propensity of such firms to apply such strategies, to identify the particular business behaviour and to assess the extent to which the particulars of family firms may constraint or lead to the implementation of innovation policies, and thus its internationalisation. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through questionnaires within family business aiming to understand the scope and characteristics of internationalisation and innovation processes within these firms. The 154 replies from such data collection were analysed using different multivariate statistic procedures, although this paper is based on factorial and correlation analysis. Findings The analysis of the results shows that there is an association between the processes of innovation and internationalisation within family business. In addition, the results also suggest a typology of firms regarding their innovation and internationalisation strategies and motivations. Research limitations/implications The results of this paper are, to some extent, limited because they did not allow comparing the findings with data from non-family business. However, the authors’ aim was not to distinguish family firms, but rather to characterise them. Practical implications This paper expects to contribute with lessons for the management of family business and to raise awareness of the constraints faced by family business. It is important to highlight that family business performance may be affected by a lower propensity to risk-taking attitudes, by the lack of non-family management and to the necessity of separating the family and the business in the business dimensions that the family limits the business growth. Originality/value Although there is a significant amount of the literature devoted to explore family business, innovation and internationalisation studies, very few draw on the relationship between internationalisation and innovation processes within family business. This paper explores such a relationship within a particular business context – the family dynamics that strongly affect management and business development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katiuska Cabrera Suarez ◽  
Elena Rivo-López ◽  
Santiago Lago-Peñas ◽  
Santiago Lago-Peñas

Nowadays, family businesses, the predominant form of business worldwide, face an increasingly changing environment boosted by megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, artificial intelligence, climate change and sustainability. Along with this, are factors that play at a firm level such as stricter rules concerning transparency and compliance or the increasing importance of Corporate Social Responsibil- ity (CSR). Therefore, new strategies and organizational changes are necessary to allow for greater adaptation to the new context. This special issue provides insights on these questions from a variety of perspectives.                                           The work of Hernández-Linares and López-Fernán- dez expands the current thinking on this process of adaptation by exploring the combined effects of three strategic orientations (entrepreneurial, learning, and market orientations) on the family firm ́s performance. The authors provide interesting contributions in terms of highlighting the importance of strategic orientations for value creation in enterprise organizations. They also provide empirical evidence that the family char- acter of the firm determines the relationship between strategic orientations and business performance, and offer some results on the effect of market orientation on firm performance in family firms versus non-family firms.                                                                                                 Those differences in strategies are further ana- lysed within the setting of the business dimension in which financial and economic decisions are made. The contribution by Terrón-Ibáñez, Gómez-Miranda and Rodríguez-Ariza, discusses the influence of that di- mension in their performance, comparing family and non-family firms. This interesting analysis of financial performance provides useful results. The study showsthat, unlike non-family firms, there is an inverted U- shaped relationship between the size of family SMEs and the value of certain economic–financial indicators, such as the return on assets, operating margin and employee productivity. This means that although the increase in the dimension of the family organizations is positively related to its performance, there are lim- its from which the value of certain economic–financial indicators can be negatively affected.                                                                                                                                                           The next paper contributes to the discussion of the family business’s role in the private health sector. Reyes-Santías, Rivo-López and Villanueva-Villar, set out to identify the historical evolution of the family business in this sector, attempting to determine the variation and its contribution to the private health sector during the 1995-2010 period. The findings of this discussion provide family firms with an almost 60% survival level in this sector. Along with this, the au- thors provide some guidelines for future research con- cerning this higher degree of survival, why family firms are leading the concentration process taking place in the sector, as well as their strategies for super-spe- cialization in the services offered especially by family businesses in healthcare.         The effect of family ownership and the character- istics of the board of directors on the implementation level of Enterprise Risk Management is an important topic. The article by Otero-González, Rodríguez-Gil, Durán-Santomil and Tamayo-Herrera certainly adds to the discussion. In particular, their research shows that family businesses are less interested in implementing ERM, except when shareholders have greater control of the company and when professional investors are present in the company. Besides, the importance of a board of directors’ characteristics of in terms of risk taking is confirmed by observing that larger boards en- courage risk managers to be hired.                                                                                                                                                           The paper by Lorenzo-Gómez looks at the barriers to change that are specific to the characteristics of family business, considering both the barriers that af- fect the perception of the need to undertake changes and the availability of resources to face those chang- es, and the barriers to implementing these changes within already consolidated organizations, where new routines are created to replace the existing ones. Thefindings suggest that the factors affecting these barri- ers include the generation at the head of the family business; the influence of interest groups, particularly in terms of the duality between the company and the family; and the participation level of professionals from outside the family.                                                                                         The final contribution by Aragon-Amonarriz and Iturrioz-Landart offers an interesting discussion on how family-responsible ownership practices enhance social responsibility in small and medium family firms. Their results reveal the positive relationships between the elements of family-responsible ownership in terms of succession management, financial resource allocation, professionalism and social responsibility, and ultimate- ly with the socially responsible behaviour of family SMEs.                                                                                                                 The challenges surrounding family business owners and the nuances around strategic and organizational decision making are together an area ripe for future research. The editors look forward to seeing future de- velopments on these topics that pay special attention to the influence of family characteristics and dynamics on the strategic and organizational change of family firms, and that draw on both quantitative and quali- tative research methodologies for the wider develop- ment of the field. Acknowledgements. The papers published in this issue were presented at the “II Workshop of Family Business: Strategic and Organizational Change” at Ourense, Galicia, Spain, June, 13-14, 2019. The conference was organized by GEN group research (http:// infogen.webs.uvigo.es/) and the Chair of Family Business of the University of Vigo, and was sponsored by the AGEF (Galician Family Business Association), Inditex Group, IEF (Spanish Family Firm Institute), and with ECOBAS group as collaborator. Thanks for their invaluable support. We are also very thankful of all other participants at the conference.   Katiuska Cabrera Suárez,  University of Las Palmas Elena Rivo-López, co-director of the Chair of Family Business, University of Vigo Santiago Lago-Peñas, co-director of the Chair of Family Business, University of Vigo    


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Campopiano ◽  
Emanuela Rondi

We extend McLarty, Vardaman, and Barnett’s analysis of how family firm supervisor attributes, in terms of familial status and socioemotional wealth importance, affect supervisee performance by considering the supervisee attributes. We further integrate the concept of restricted and generalized social exchange to provide a theoretical basis for how hierarchical dyadic (in)congruence moderates the relationship between supervisee commitment and performance. By providing a more fine-grained conceptualization, we contribute to the family business literature at its organization behavior interface.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erny Rachmawati ◽  
Suliyanto ◽  
Agus Suroso

PurposeThis study aims to determine the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on family business performance. This study also discusses the role of family involvement as a mediating variable and the role of gender as a moderating variable in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance.Design/methodology/approachA total of 328 hotels in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, were selected as samples by the convenience sampling method. Primary data is collected through structured questionnaires that are delivered by themselves to key people in the hotel such as owners, directors and key staff (HRD, financial, relationship). Hypotheses are tested by structural equation modeling procedures using AMOS 22.0. Sobel test is used to determine the indirect effect of the mediation variable.FindingsThe results showed that entrepreneurial orientation had no significant effect on family business performance. Family involvement acts as a full mediation in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance. Gender acts as a moderating variable that can strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance. The results showed support for previous research.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of the study cannot conclude the national family business because it adopts convenience sampling and the sampling area is limited in Yogyakarta. Future research can use a larger sample. This study only researches hotels managed by family businesses, so it is not feasible to conclude for family businesses in general. Future research may choose to use several types of family businesses so that more varied results can be obtained. Future research could also compare hotels managed by family businesses with non-family businesses. The results also found that in addition to gender roles, respondent heterogeneity was an important component in the study of social identity. Therefore, research examining the influence of different cultures on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance should be an extraordinary topic for future study. Other results from this study also indicate that there is a role for religion in improving hotel performance. Future research is needed to further explore Islamic business modeling for family businesses.Practical implicationsThis finding has significant implications that can help family businesses in developing strategies that are suitable for business management. Entrepreneurial orientation occupies a strategic position in developing sustainable competitive advantage in the family business of the tourism sector especially the hotel business in Yogyakarta for the better. Besides, the results of the study also showed that entrepreneurial orientation had no significant effect on performance. This relationship becomes significant when combined with active family involvement. This finding also shows that entrepreneurial orientation has the potential to have a more beneficial effect because of the active involvement of the family in helping with business management, alleviating business-related problems, and having a significant influence when the family also acts as management.Social implicationsResearch findings indicate the role of gender in strengthening the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance. This provides a good position for women in the social environment to show achievement. To place women on the side of gender equality and justice in the family business in Indonesia. By opening wider access for Indonesian women in the realm of business management, expanding women's participation in a family business, increasing the role of control for women, and increasing women's knowledge and skills to increase the benefits in managing family businesses so that they have sustainable resilience in the face of global competition.Originality/valueThe results of this study provide a new model in providing an overview of the direct and indirect roles (mediating and moderating) in the assessment of family business performance. This study uses three variables which are important in performance appraisal, namely entrepreneurial orientation (independent variable), family involvement (mediating variable) and gender (moderating variable). Where research that combines these four variables, directly and indirectly, has never been done before.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravindra H. Kuruppuge ◽  
Aleš Gregar

AbstractA number of family business researches affirm benefits of family involvement to the business while some of other studies assure only detriments of family involvement. When comparative studies of family businesses begin to surface on the family involvement in business, there is that irritating question on what effect is brought about by family involvement to the business. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore business advantages and disadvantages generated by family involvement in businesses in Sri Lanka. The present study attempted to address the above knowledge gap, using qualitative research approach and multiple case studies as the strategy of inquiry. Purposive sampling technique was used to select both cases and respondents. Privately held, successfully conducted four family businesses were selected as cases and, existing business owner and one family related manager from each case were taken as respondents. Data was collected mainly via semi-structured, in depth interviews, observations, and secondary documents. Data collection from interviews consisted of 15 interviews with 09 different people from four cases. Before the data analysis, coding and categorization of respondents’ views from interviews helped to identify common patterns and themes from both within the case and across cases. The analysis was carried out in the light of Agency Theory and resulted in a rich understanding of business advantages and disadvantages of family involvement in businesses in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study indicated that the agency cost is created not only on business matters but also on family matters. Further, findings revealed that agency benefit also can be obtained by family business by handling the family matters carefully in line with business matters. Findings of this study clearly indicated that an extension to Agency Theory is required to explain owner agent relationship in family businesses.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheshadri Chatterjee ◽  
Ranjan Chaudhuri ◽  
Demetris Vrontis

Purpose This study aims to investigate the generalizability of Daniela Weismeier-Sammer’s (2011) replication study on entrepreneurial behavior and extended the model by considering the adoption of a technology platform as a moderator in the Indian family entrepreneurship community. Design/methodology/approach The earlier replication study was conducted in Austria, and this one has been conducted in India with 372 respondents of Indian family firms. The study has used the structural equation modeling technique for analysis purposes. The study has also used multi-group analysis for understanding the moderator impact. Findings Willingness to change, generational involvement, perceived technological opportunities and corporate entrepreneurship for the Indian family business community, along with strategic planning, as a moderating factor, formed the earlier model. In the context of strategic planning, this study observes a similarity, but due to the consideration of the additional moderator, the role of generational involvement has become insignificant. Research limitations/implications This study adds value to the overall body of literature on the family business community, digital entrepreneurship and technology adoption in the family business community. The study provides valuable inputs on the digital entrepreneurship and family business firms which could be used by entrepreneurs, policymakers and practitioners for different purposes. The sample size is small and India specific so the proposed model cannot be generalizable. Originality/value This study has used replication and validation techniques in the digital entrepreneurship community and new venture creation in the Indian context. Very few studies have explored the digital entrepreneurship phenomenon in the Indian family business community context. Also, the use of adoption of technology platform as a moderator enhances the model from the earlier study. Thus, this study is deemed to be a unique research study.


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