Strategic Entrepreneurship and Succession in Family Firms
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 December 2011
End Date
30 November 2013
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Strategic Entrepreneurship
Family Firms
Succession
Career Choice Intentions
Description
Family firms are of high social and economic relevance in Switzerland and across the world. It is thus of utmost importance to understand what makes them successful in the long term. While their long-term prospering depends on a variety of factors, two especially promising antecedents have emerged in the growing literature on family firms in recent years: strategic entrepreneurship and intra-family succession. However, despite noteworthy research efforts, important research gaps in both fields exist. The aim of this project is to further address the existing research gaps and to generate valuable contributions to both streams of literature in the family firm context.
Leader contributor(s)
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Strategic Entrepreneurship
Family Firms
Succession
Career Choice Intentions
Long-term Success
Method(s)
Quantitative research methods of different kinds
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Division(s)
Eprints ID
207616

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Succession Intentions Across the Globe: The Role of Institutional Factors

2014-06-23 , Sieger, Philipp , Zellweger, Thomas , Fueglistaller, Urs

While succession intentions have received increasing scholarly attention in recent years, there is a lack of knowledge about country-level antecedents and differences. Our paper aims to close this gap by investigating succession intentions of 6,360 students with family business background from 26 countries. More specifically, we blend theory of planned behavior with institutional theory and find that institutional variables such as individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and the level of corruption explain the formation of succession intentions over and above traditional theory of planned behavior elements. In addition, we reveal a U-shaped relationship between a nation's level of economic development and the strength of succession intentions. This indicates the existence of two types of succession intentions: necessity and opportunity succession. These findings add valuable insights to literature on family businesses, succession, theory of planned behavior, and practice.

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Publication

Family Firm Incumbent's Attitude Toward Intra-family Succession: Antecedents and Effects on Intentions

2013-08-09 , De Massis, Alfredo , Sieger, Philipp , Vismara, Silvio , Chua, Jess H.

Research shows that intention for intra-family succession is an important determinant of family firm behavior. To provide a systematic analysis of the antecedents of such intention, we use the theory of planned behavior to model the incumbent leader’s attitude toward intra-family succession because that particular attitude is idiosyncratic to family firms. Empirical tests using a sample of 271 Italian incumbent leaders of family firms show that, as predicted by planned behavior theory, attitude and self-efficacy are significant predictors of intention. They show further that attitude is affected by the number of children, emotional attachment, and need for control.

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Publication

What makes them pass it on? The Incumbent's Intra-Family Succession Intentions

2012-06-26 , De Massis, Alfredo , Sieger, Philipp , Vismara, Silvio , Chua, Jess

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Publication

Socioemotional Wealth, Ambidexterity, and Family Firm Performance: An Empirical Study

2015-06-30 , Sieger, Philipp , Treude, Moritz , Zellweger, Thomas

While family business literature agrees that family firms are driven by both non-economic and financial motives, it is unclear how the prioritization of socioemotional wealth (SEW) over financial considerations affects family firms' financial performance. Based on a sample of 343 family firm owners from German-speaking Europe, this study reveals a significant and positive relationship between the firm owners' SEW considerations and their family businesses' financial performance. This relationship, in turn, is found to be mediated by organizational ambidexterity. A fine-grained analysis of the different SEW dimensions indicates that this pattern may be driven by two elements of socioemotional wealth only (family members' identification with the firm and emotional attachment). Our findings demonstrate that business families do not necessarily face a trade-off when prioritizing the preservation of their SEW over stabilizing or improving the financial performance of their business. The study enriches several streams of literature and opens up numerous avenues for future research.

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Publication

What makes next generation members found their own firm: knowledge, contacts, or money?

2012-09-03 , Sieger, Philipp , Minola, Tommaso , Fueglistaller, Urs

To increase our understanding of the formation of students' intentions to found an own firm, research needs to systematically integrate theory of planned behavior, resource-based view, and family business literature. To date, however, an explicit and systematic integration of these perspectives cannot be found. We attempt to close this gap by explicitly investigating founding intentions of students with family business background. More specifically, we examine how the provision of human, social, and financial resources by the family affects students' desirability and feasibility perceptions, and ultimately founding intentions. Our analysis based on a sample of 14'290 students from 26 countries reveals that both desirability and feasibility perceptions mediate the relationships between all three types of resources and founding intentions. Interestingly, the provision of financial resources is negatively related to both desirability and feasibility perceptions. These findings illustrate the research potential of a combination of theory of planned behavior with the resource-based view, especially in the family business context. Our study thus offers valuable contributions to literature on career choices, theory of planned behavior, and family business, as well as to practice.

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Publication

Toward an Institutional Extension of Theory of Planned Behavior : The Case of Succession Intentions

2012-08-06 , Sieger, Philipp , Zellweger, Thomas , Fueglistaller, Urs

The present paper blends theory of planned behavior with institutional theory to predict career choice intentions of students with family business background. Probing a sample of 6’360 students with family business background from 26 countries we find that institutional variables such as individualistic culture, uncertainty avoidance, and the level of corruption explain the formation of succession intentions over and above traditional theory of planned behavior measures. In addition, we identify a U-shaped relationship between a nation’s level of economic development and the strength of succession intentions, indicating the existence of two types of succession motives, necessity and opportunity succession. These findings constitute valuable contributions to literature on theory of planned behavior, succession in family firms, and practice.

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Publication

Offspring's Founding Intentions and Family's Resource Provision : When Theory of Planned Behavior meets the Resource-based View

2012-06-26 , Sieger, Philipp , Minola, Tommaso

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If We Cannot Have It Then No One Should: Shutting Down Versus Selling in Family Business Portfolios

2015-08-07 , Akhter, Naveed , Chirico, Francesco , Sieger, Philipp

The present study investigates exit patterns in family business portfolios in times of declining performance. Drawing on social identity theory and a sample of six family business portfolios from Pakistan, we reveal that business families often prefer shutting down satellite portfolio firms rather than selling them. This is found to be mainly driven by the identity fit of the family and the satellite business and the desire to restart it at a later point in time. This study contributes to literature on portfolio entrepreneurship, business exit, and long-term success and endurance of family firms.

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Publication

Turning Agents into Psychological Principals: Aligning Interests of Non-Owners Through Psychological Ownership

2013-05 , Sieger, Philipp , Zellweger, Thomas , Aquino, Karl

Principals who delegate tasks to agents face the perennial challenge of overcoming agency problems. We investigate whether feelings of ownership among senior managers in the absence of formal ownership can align agents' interests with those of principals, thus turning agents into psychological principals. Using a moderated mediation model, we find that psychological ownership is positively related to company performance through the mediating effect of individual-level entrepreneurial behaviour. We also find that the effect of psychological ownership on individual-level entrepreneurial behaviour and, ultimately, company performance is weaker for high levels of monitoring compared to low levels. These findings offer important contributions to agency, psychological ownership, and entrepreneurship literatures.

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