From Longevity of Firms to transgenerational Entrepreneurship of Families : Introducing Family Entrepreneurial Orientation

While existing research on the longevity of family firms has focused on the survival of firms, this article investigates transgenerational entrepreneurship of families. By building on the transgenerational entrepreneurship research framework, we argue that by shifting from firm to family level of analysis, we gain a deeper understanding of family firms' ability to create value across generations. We find evidence for our argument in that such a level shift reveals extended entrepreneurial activity which is missed when focusing exclusively on the firm level. We introduce and empirically explore the construct of family entrepreneurial orientation (FEO) which may serve as an antecedent to transgenerational value creation by families.