Paper Title
Entrepreneurial Orientation in Family Firms: Exploring Family Level Antecedents
Abstract
This study utilizes data from Finnish family businesses to investigate the effect of family functionality, identification with and emotional attachment to the family on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and, as a further consequence, the impact on objective firm performance. Structural equation modeling reveals that family functionality is positively linked to the identification with and the emotional attachment to the family. However, differences prevail regarding the effect of identification and emotional attachment on the single EO dimensions – innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking. In addition, the results show that solely innovativeness is positively linked to firm performance. After analyzing and critically reflecting on the individual effects, this paper concludes with a discussion of its findings, along with its practical and theoretical implications.
Index Terms— entrepreneurial orientation, family firms.