Michele Pinelli, Marcel Hülsbeck and Sascha Kraus
Past research has advanced a plethora of theoretical arguments on the effect of family ownership on firms’ international expansion and produced mixed empirical results. It is…
Abstract
Purpose
Past research has advanced a plethora of theoretical arguments on the effect of family ownership on firms’ international expansion and produced mixed empirical results. It is argued that the oversimplified way in which researchers have examined theoretically and tested empirically business families’ socioemotional priorities may explain the state of fragmentation in the literature. This study aims to investigate the differential effects of restricted (short-term and family-centric) versus extended (long-term and business-centric) socioemotional priorities on the extent of family firms’ internationalization to capture more nuanced aspects of the socioemotional wealth concept.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the hypotheses through OLS regressions on a sample of 287 family firms.
Findings
The authors find that restricted family-centric socioemotional priorities and extended socioemotional priorities related to the establishment of long-term relationships with business partners are negatively associated with the extent of family firms’ internalization. They also find that extended socioemotional priorities related to long-term orientation and transgenerational control intentions are positively associated with international expansion and that this effect is stronger for younger family firms.
Originality/value
This study disentangles the differential effects of two kinds of socioemotional priorities on family firms’ internationalization, thus developing more fine-grained theoretical arguments about the socioemotional drivers of family firms’ behavior. In addition, the authors directly measure socioemotional priorities instead of relying on indirect governance measures.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to examine the degree to which a selection of home country factors affects the proclivity of firms to internationalise. The study also proposes and tests a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the degree to which a selection of home country factors affects the proclivity of firms to internationalise. The study also proposes and tests a conceptual model that fuses institutional and resource-based theories to improve our understanding of firm internationalisation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses cross-sectional, national-level secondary data from the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute and World Economic Forum data sets on global entrepreneurship and competitiveness indices for 137 countries. The data is analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that national income, institutions, trade openness and availability of risk capital positively influenced firm internationalisation, while home-country networking had an inverse effect. However, home country infrastructure had no statistically significant effect on firm internationalisation.
Research limitations/implications
The findings highlight the importance of considering home country attributes in understanding the internationalisation of firms.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the role of local factors on the internationalisation of entrepreneurial ventures. It also tests a novel conceptual model that integrates institutional and resource-based theories to explain the nuances of the internationalisation of business ventures globally.