Socioemotional Wealth and Networking in the Internationalisation of Family SMEs

In internationalisation processes, international expansion exposes family SMEs to external networking and the risks such expansion entails, and perceived threats to their socioemotional wealth (SEW) might restrain their willingness to take these actions. However, very few studies measure SEW and associate it with internationalisation. Considering SEW preservation’s prominence in family SMEs and SMEs’ heavy dependence on networking during internationalisation, we hypothesise that SEW preservation has a negative association and networking has a positive association with the family SMEs’ degree of internationalisation (DOI). We reconstruct four SEW constructs that carry significance for family…

Effectuation and foreign market entry of entrepreneurial firms

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the decision-making process for entrepreneurial firms when entering foreign markets and how and why they entered those markets. Design/methodology/approach – A nascent theory in entrepreneurship called effectuation is combined with internationalization process theory as the conceptual framework to study decision-making under uncertainty. The central concept in both these theories is relationships and how they can be used to gain knowledge and thus reduce uncertainty and in the case of effectuation to co-create opportunities to enter foreign markets. The research design involves a multiple case study of software firms from Finland and New Ze…

The Case Study in Family Business : An Analysis of Current Research Practices and Recommendations

In this study, we identified and analyzed 75 articles in the family business (FB) literature between 2000 and 2014 as to the case study design they adopted. We found that the positivistic case study approach is the FB disciplinary convention. The two alternative approaches of critical realism and interpretivism are used to a significantly lesser extent. We anticipate that in the future the positivistic approach will continue to be used widely. The other two approaches can be employed to a higher extent since their use is likely to contribute to a scientific pluralism in FB case study research.

Institutional distance and international networking

We focus on how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adapt to differences in institutional logics (values, beliefs, and rules) in their networking when they enter an institutionally distant market. We address gaps in the literature, relating to the role of institutional logics in SME internationalization, and how institutional distance affects the formation of network ties. We show how the social interaction involved in internationalization is embedded in the institutional logics followed by partnering actors. Specifically, we demonstrate how institutional distance may constrain the networking activities of SMEs and identify practices that may support successful internationalization. …

Book review: Family entrepreneurship: Rethinking the research agenda

Family business internationalisation and networks: emerging pathways

Purpose The aim of this study is twofold: to provide a meta-synthesis of the current state of knowledge in family business (FB) internationalisation research, adopting a network perspective, and to highlight emerging themes that may set the stage for future work on FB internationalisation, for the benefit of researchers adopting a network perspective. Design/methodology/approach To address the twofold purpose of the study, the current paper provides a state-of-the-art review of 25 peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1993 to 2014. This study also presents a meta-synthesis of the theoretical approaches, key findings and concepts that were pinpointed in the review, and proposes emer…

Network embeddedness in the internationalization of biotechnology entrepreneurs

This study investigates how entrepreneurs of biotech enterprises embed in domestic and international networks so as to internationalize. We advance a contextual framework of embeddedness of internationalizing entrepreneurs, providing a contribution (i) by synthesizing and applying existing conceptual insights from the networking literature to provide a more culturally sensitive view of getting embedded for international entrepreneurship in the biotech industry and (ii) by adding insights into the practices and (micro)processes of how and in what ways embeddedness integrates with the internationalization of biotech entrepreneurs. Our study involves six entrepreneurs from Canada, Finland, and…