Venturing Motives and Venturing Types in Entrepreneurial Families: A Corporate Entrepreneurship Perspective

Current research suggests that entrepreneurship in the family business context is mainly induced by top-down firm-level activity. We propose that entrepreneurial activity is also initiated autonomously as a bottom-up process by individual members or a group of individual members of an entrepreneurial family (EF). Building on 63 interviews with EF members involved in 39 venturing cases, we reveal a set of unique motives driving the venturing activity and show how these motives are intertwined with six heterogeneous family venture types. We also emphasize how positioning (i.e., inside or outside of family firms’ boundaries), family support, emotional attachment, and transgenerational intention vary among the different venture types

Sector-Based Entrepreneurial Capabilities and the Promise of Sector Studies in Entrepreneurship

The influence of the industrial sector is a long-standing assumption in entrepreneurship studies, yet the mechanisms through which the industrial sector shapes entrepreneurial phenomena and the processes through which entrepreneurial actors interact with sectors to prospect, develop, and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities remain largely under-theorized and little understood. We critically reexamine the notion of “sector” in entrepreneurship research, advancing a more dynamic view of the industrial sectors captured by the concept of sector fluidity and identifying three approaches to move the sector more prominently onto the “front seat” of entrepreneurship theory and research. Defining sector-based entrepreneurial capabilities and examining their importance to advance current understanding of industry-specific determinants, processes, and outcomes of entrepreneurship, we set out an agenda for further research aimed at advancing sector studies in entrepreneurship

New Product Portfolio Performance in Family Firms

This study investigates the relationship between top management team (TMT) innovation orientation and new product portfolio performance in small and medium-sized family firms by exploring two family firm-specific sources of TMT diversity as moderators: the number of generations involved in the TMT and the ratio of family members in the TMT. Results indicate that family-induced diversity in the TMT has opposing moderating effects. Although a positive relationship exists between TMT innovation orientation and new product portfolio performance when multiple generations are involved in the TMT, TMT innovation orientation and new product portfolio performance experience a negative relationship when the ratio of family members in the TMT is high. The study discusses theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and develops avenues for future research