Title: Internationalisation and performance in family businesses: influence of the internationalisation path followed

Authors: Oscar Javier Varas-Fuente; Raquel Arguedas-Sanz; Beatriz Rodrigo-Moya

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, National Distance Education University (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain; Department of Business Administration, University Carlos III of Madrid, Calle Madrid, 126, 28903 Getafe (Madrid), Spain ' Department of Finance and Accounting, National Distance Education University (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain ' Department of Business Organization, National Distance Education University (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Abstract: Although many family businesses have chosen to undertake internationalisation processes, little is known about how the internationalisation-performance relationship is affected by the internationalisation path followed. This research is based on the theory of resources and capabilities, the unique set of business resources (familiness) and the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) perspective. Based on a set of panel data from the Spanish survey on business strategies for small and medium-sized Spanish family businesses from 2005 to 2015, fixed-effect regressions were run on a sample of 285 businesses that followed the traditional path and 107 that followed the accelerated path, finding an inverted U-shaped curve for the traditional path and an inverted S-shaped curve for the accelerated path. Specifically, the accelerated path, not the traditional one, allows an increase in performance at higher levels of internationalisation.

Keywords: familiness; family businesses; internationalisation paths; internationalisation-performance relationship; resources and capabilities; socio-emotional wealth; SEW.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2022.124453

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2022 Vol.46 No.2, pp.185 - 209

Received: 11 Jun 2019
Accepted: 14 Jul 2019
Published online: 27 Jul 2022 *

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