Internationalisation of Spanish family SMEs: an analysis of family involvement

The aim of this work is to analyse the influence of family involvement on a company in the context of the firm's internationalisation. The work incorporates some of the most current perspectives from the international business field. From these reflections, we propose a causal explanatory model whose ultimate dependent variable is the firm's level of internationalisation, considering independent variables both at the individual and company level (including family influence). The model is tested on a sample of 222 Andalusian firms (Spain), using a structural equation modelling technique (Partial Least Squares – PLS). The results show how the family involvement plays a mediating role when considering the internationalisation of family firms. Some of the conclusions may give useful insights for public agencies responsible for fostering SME internationalisation as well as for the academic world.

[1]  S. Slater,et al.  Management Influences on Export Performance: A Review of the Empirical Literature 1978‐1988 , 1989 .

[2]  A. H. Moini.  Small Firms Exporting: How Effective Are Government Export Assistance Programs? , 1998 .

[3]  J. Hennart,et al.  The transaction costs theory of joint ventures: an empirical study of Japanese subsidiaries in the united states , 1991 .

[4]  W. Scott.  The Adolescence of Institutional Theory. , 1987 .

[5]  N. Churchill,et al.  The Five Stages of Small Business Growth , 1983 .

[6]  J. Calof.  The Relationship Between Firm Size and Export Behavior Revisited , 1994 .

[7]  Timo Lautanen.  Modelling Small Firms' Decisions to Export – Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Finland, 1995 , 2000 .

[8]  Andrea Bonaccorsi,et al.  On the Relationship Between Firm Size and Export Intensity , 1992 .

[9]  John L. Ward,et al.  The Special Role of Strategic Planning for Family Businesses , 1988 .

[10]  Rik Donckels,et al.  Are Family Businesses Really Different? European Experiences from STRATOS , 1991 .

[11]  E. Penrose.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[12]  M. Gallo,et al.  Important Factors in Family Business Internationalization , 1996 .

[13]  R. Vernon.  International investment and international trade in the product cycle , 1966 .

[14]  W. C. Kim,et al.  Global Strategy and Multinationals' Entry Mode Choice , 1992 .

[15]  John H. Dunning,et al.  The Study of International Business: A Plea for a More Interdisciplinary Approach , 1989 .

[16]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[17]  V. N. Awasthi,et al.  IMPACT OF CORPORATE INSIDER, BLOCKHOLDER, AND INSTITUTIONAL EQUITY OWNERSHIP ON FIRM RISK TAKING , 1996 .

[18]  J. Hennart,et al.  Greenfield vs. Acquisition: The Strategy of Japanese Investors in the United States , 1993 .

[19]  Alan E. Ellstrand,et al.  Composition of the Top Management Team and Firm International Diversification , 2000 .

[20]  H. Gatignon,et al.  Modes of Foreign Entry: A Transaction Cost Analysis and Propositions , 1986 .

[21]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[22]  Sylvie K. Chetty,et al.  Firm‐level Determinants of Export Performance: A Meta‐analysis , 1993 .

[23]  R. Hisrich,et al.  Guest Editorial: International Entrepreneurship: Past, Present, and Future , 1996 .

[24]  Jane Lu,et al.  Intra- and Inter-organizational Imitative Behavior: Institutional Influences on Japanese Firms' Entry Mode Choice , 2002 .

[25]  Edward G. Carmines,et al.  Reliability and Validity Assessment , 1979 .

[26]  M. Nieto,et al.  International involvement of smes: the impact of ownership , 2002 .

[27]  Dawn Harris,et al.  Is Strategy Different for the Family-Owned Business? , 1994 .

[28]  Sam C. Okoroafo.  Internationalization of Family Businesses: Evidence from Northwest Ohio, U.S.A , 1999 .

[29]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[30]  Nicholas Athanassiou,et al.  The Impact of the Top Management Team's International Business Experience on the Firm's Internationalization: Social Networks at Work , 2002 .

[31]  C. Oliver.  STRATEGIC RESPONSES TO INSTITUTIONAL PROCESSES , 1991 .

[32]  Robert G. Donnelley.  A empresa familiar , 1967 .

[33]  R. Church.  The Family Firm in Industrial Capitalism: International Perspectives on Hypotheses and History , 1993 .

[34]  Franklin R. Root,et al.  Entry strategies for international markets , 1986 .

[35]  S. Ramaswami,et al.  Choice of Foreign Market Entry Mode: Impact of Ownership, Location and Internalization Factors , 1992 .

[36]  Peter J. Buckley,et al.  The internationalization of the firm , 1999 .

[37]  S. Cavusgil.  ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH EXPORT ACTIVITY , 1984 .

[38]  Stefan Mueller,et al.  International Orientation as a Precondition for Export Success , 1990 .

[39]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[40]  David A. Belsley,et al.  Conditioning Diagnostics: Collinearity and Weak Data in Regression , 1991 .

[41]  J. Astrachan,et al.  Myths and Realities: Family Businesses' Contribution to the US Economy— A Framework for Assessing Family Business Statistics , 1996 .

[42]  Eileen Fischer,et al.  The Influence of the Management Team's International Experience on the Internationalization Behaviors of SMES , 1997 .

[43]  Bernard Barry,et al.  The Development of Organization Structure in the Family Firm , 1989 .

[44]  O. Andersen.  On the Internationalization Process of Firms: A Critical Analysis , 1993 .

[45]  J. Johanson,et al.  The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments , 1977 .

[46]  J. Laurila,et al.  Institutional Conditioning of Foreign Expansion: Some Evidence from Finnish-Based Paper Industry Firms, 1994–2000* , 2003 .

[47]  M. Mizruchi,et al.  The Social Construction of Organizational Knowledge: A Study of the Uses of Coercive, Mimetic, and Normative Isomorphism , 1999 .

[48]  J. Dunning.  Toward an Eclectic Theory of International Production: Some Empirical Tests , 1980 .

[49]  S. Reid,et al.  The Decision-Maker and Export Entry and Expansion , 1981 .

[50]  D. Hambrick,et al.  Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers , 1984 .

[51]  John L. Ward,et al.  The family business : its governance for sustainability , 1998 .

[52]  P. P. McDougall,et al.  Toward a theory of international new ventures , 1994 .

[53]  Ivan Lansberg,et al.  The Succession Conspiracy , 1988 .

[54]  Nicholas Athanassiou,et al.  Internationalization, Tacit Knowledge and the Top Management Teams of MNCs , 2000 .

[55]  Sylvie K. Chetty,et al.  Pre-Export Behaviour of Small Manufacturing Firms in New Zealand , 1994 .

[56]  Rakesh B. Sambharya.  FOREIGN EXPERIENCE OF TOP MANAGEMENT TEAMS AND INTERNATIONAL DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGIES OF U.S. MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS , 1996 .

[57]  P. P. McDougall,et al.  International Entrepreneurship: The Intersection of Two Research Paths , 2000 .

[58]  Kurt J. Miesenbock.  Small Businesses and Exporting: A Literature Review , 1988 .

[59]  M. Gallo,et al.  Internationalizing the Family Business: Facilitating and Restraining Factors , 1991 .