The Critical Path to Family Firm Success through Entrepreneurial Risk Taking and Image

Drawing from organizational identity theory, we explore how family ownership and family expectations influence family firm image and entrepreneurial risk taking, and ultimately firm performance. We find support for a fully-mediated model, utilizing a sample of 163 Swiss family firms. Family ownership was shown to positively influence the development of a family firm image. High family expectations of the firm leader was shown to promote a family firm image and risk taking. In turn, risk taking and family firm image contributed to firm performance. Accordingly, our study identifies why family ownership and family expectations can benefit family firm performance - through their influence on family firm image and entrepreneurial risk taking.