Food for thought: Family Entrepreneurship in four questions

Keywords: Family Entrepreneurship, Family Business, entrepreneurial behaviors, family composition

Abstract

Family Entrepreneurship is a growing field of study. The purpose of this essay is to relay the momentum to academics, practitioners, and society. The essay is structured around four thought provoking questions: who is family?, what role do values play?, what is entrepreneurship?, and why is the business family and family business situation so complicated? These questions and the elements of response offered lead to a wider and deeper understanding of Family Entrepreneurship at the individual, family, and family business levels. Contributions to theory are twofold. First this essay underscores the need for a contextualized understanding and action and provides frameworks to undertake them. Second, it sheds light on the damages incurred by focussing on mainstream and generalizations by teasing out important aspects until now ignored. Contributions to practice concern a wider and deeper understanding of Family Entrepreneurship, recognizing and supporting situationally adapted behaviors as entrepreneurial, and widening the identified outcomes of these behaviors. Contributions to society are linked to the prevalence of business families and family businesses in economies and societies worldwide. Using this weight for societal impact, Family Entrepreneurship can be a beacon for transition towards economies and societies that are more collaborative, just, and sober.

Received: 26 April 2023
Accepted: 05 October 2023

Author Biography

Kathleen Randerson, Audencia Business School, France

Profesora Asociada en Audencia (Francia). Tiene un doctorado de la Universidad de Grenoble. Sus intereses de investigación se centran en los comportamientos emprendedores en diferentes escenarios: emprendimiento organizacional, emprendimiento familiar. Ha publicado tres libros y numerosos artículos en revistas como Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavoir and Research, Futures, Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Se desempeñó como Presidenta del Comité de Comunicaciones de la AoM y actualmente es VP Francia para el ECSB.

References

Aldrich, H. E., & Cliff, J. E. (2003). The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective. Journal of Business Venturing, 18(5), 573–596. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(03)00011-9

Andreini, D., Bettinelli, C., Foss, N.J,. & Mismetti, M. (2021), Business model innovation: a review of the process-based literature. Journal of Management and Governance, 26(4), 1089-1121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-021-09590-w

Astrachan, J.H., & Shanker, M.C. (2003). Family businesses’ contribution to the US economy: a closer look. Family Business Review, 16(3), 211-219.

Barrédy, C. (2016). In search of future alternatives for family business: family law contributions through civil and common law comparison. Futures, 75, 44–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.09.005

Bergamaschi, M., & Randerson, K. (2016). The futures of family businesses and the development of corporate social responsibility. Futures, 75, 54-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.10.006

Bettinelli, C., Sciascia, S., Randerson, K., & Fayolle, A. (2017). Researching entrepreneurship in family firms. Journal of Small Business Management, 55(4), 506-529. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12347

Bettinelli, C., Fayolle, A., & Randerson, K. (2014). Family entrepreneurship: a developing field. Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship, 10(3), 161-236. Now publishers. https://doi.org/10.1561/0300000049

Brannon, D. L., Wiklund, J., & Haynie, J. M. (2013). The varying effects of family relationships in entrepreneurial teams. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(1), 107–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2012.00533.x

Brundin, E., & Härtel, C.E.J. (2014) Emotions in family firms. In: Melin L, Nordqvist M and Sharma P (eds). The Sage Handbook of Family Business. London: Sage, 529–548.

Chua, J. H., Chrisman, J. J., & Sharma, P. (1999). Defining the family business by behavior. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 23(4), 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225879902300402

Clauß, T., Kraus, S., & Jones, P. (2022). Sustainability in family business: mechanisms, technologies and business models for achieving economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 176, 121450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121450

Clinton, E., McAdam, M., Brophy, X., & Gamble, J. (2021). Entrepreneurial learning: The transmitting and embedding of entrepreneurial behaviours within the transgenerational entrepreneurial family. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 33(5-6), 383–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1727088

Coontz, S. (2016). The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap. Hachette UK.

Discua Cruz, A., E. Hamilton., & Jack. (2021). Understanding entrepreneurial opportunities through metaphors: A narrative approach to theorizing family entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 33(5-6), 405–426. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1727089

Dibrell, C., & Memili, E. (2019). A brief history and a look to the future of family business heterogeneity: An introduction. In The Palgrave handbook of heterogeneity among family firms, 1-15. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77676-7_1

Dou, J., Su, E., Li, S., & Holt, D. (2020). Transgenerational entrepreneurship in business families: what is explicitly learned and what is successfully transferred? In Families in Business, 92-106. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1727090

e Cunha, M. P., Leitão, M. J. S., Clegg, S., Hernández-Linares, R., Moasa, H., Randerson, K., & Rego, A. (2021). Cognition, emotion and action: persistent sources of parent–offspring paradoxes in the family business. Journal of Family Business Management.

Estrada-Robles, M., Williams, N., & Vorley, T. (2021). Structural coupling in entrepreneurial families: how business-related resources contribute to enterpriseness. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 1(5-6), 457–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1727093

Frank, H., Lueger, M., Nosé, L., & Suchy, D. (2010). The concept of “Familiness”: Literature review and systems theory-based reflections. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 1(3), 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2010.08.001

Frank, H., Kessler, A., Rusch, T., Suess–Reyes, J., & Weismeier–Sammer, D. (2017). Capturing the familiness of family businesses: Development of the family influence familiness scale (FIFS). Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 41(5), 709–742. rhttps://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12229

Goldscheider, F. K. (2000). Men, children and the future of the family in the third millennium. Futures, 32(6), 525–538. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0016-3287(00)00005-7

Gómez-Mejía, L. R., Haynes, K. T., Núñez-Nickel, M., Jacobson, K. J., & Moyano-Fuentes, J. (2007). Socioemotional wealth and business risks in family-controlled firms: Evidence from Spanish olive oil mills. Administrative science quarterly, 52(1), 106–137. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.52.1.106

Habbershon, T. G., & Williams, M. (1999). A resource-based framework for assessing the strategic advantages of family firms. Family business review, 12(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.1999.00001.x

Habbershon, T.G., Williams, M., & MacMillan, I. (2003). A unified systems perspective of family firm performance. Journal of business venturing, 18(4), 451–465.

Hanson, S., & Keplinger, K. (2021). The balance that sustains Benedictines: Family entrepreneurship across generations. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 33(5-6), 442–456. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1727092

Kidwell, R. E., Kellermanns, F. W., & Eddleston, K. A. (2012). Harmony, justice, confusion, and conflict in family firms: Implications for ethical climate and the “fredo effect”. Journal of business ethics, 106, 503-517. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1014-7

Koerner, A. F., & Fitzpatrick, M. A. (2002). Toward a theory of family communication. Communication Theory, 12(1), 70–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00260.x

Koerner, A. F., & Fitzpatrick, M. A. (2004). Communication in intact families. In A. Vangelisti (Ed.), Handbook of family communication, (pp. 177–195). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203848166.ch8

Labaki, R., & D’Allura, G. M. (2021). A governance approach of emotion in family business: Towards a multi-level integrated framework and research agenda. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 11(3), 119-158. https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2021-2089

Montgomery, A. (2008). US Families 2025: in search of future families. Futures, 40(4), 377–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2007.08.005

Michael-Tsabari, N., Labaki, R., & Zachary, R. K. (2014). Toward the cluster model: The family firm’s entrepreneurial behavior over generations. Family Business Review, 27(2), 161-185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486514525803

Nordqvist, M., & Melin, L. (2010). Entrepreneurial families and family firms. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 22(3-4), 211-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985621003726119

Parrique, T. (2022). Ralentir ou périr: l’économie de la décroissance. Seuil.

Pieper, T. M., Kellermanns, F. W., & Astrachan, J. H. (2021). Update 2021: Family Businesses’ Contribution to the US Economy. Family Enterprise USA, Washington, DC, (704).

Radu-Lefebvre, M., & Randerson, K. (2020). Successfully navigating the paradox of control and autonomy in succession: The role of managing ambivalent emotions. International Small Business Journal, 38(3), 184-210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242619879078

Ramirez-Pasillas, M., Brundin, E., & Markowska, M. (2017). Contextualizing Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies and Developing Countries. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785367533.00006

Randerson, K. (2016). Entrepreneurial Orientation: do we actually know as much as we think we do?. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 28(7-8), 580-600. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2016.1221230

Randerson, K. (2022). Conceptualizing family business social responsibility. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174, 121225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121225

Randerson, K. (2023a). The futures of business schools: Identity, strategies, and imagined futures for a pandemic/post-pandemic world. Futures, 150, 103175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2023.103175

Randerson, K. (2023b). Family entrepreneurship: A perspective article. Journal of Family Business Management, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfbm-07-2023-0109

Randerson, K. (2023b). Entrepreneurship and families: Family entrepreneurship. Elgar Encyclopedia of Family Business, ed. Discua Cruz & Howorth, forthcoming.

Randerson, K., Bettinelli, C., Dossena, G., & Fayolle, A. (Eds.). (2015). Family Entrepreneurship: Rethinking the research agenda. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315732381

Randerson, K., & Estrada-Robles, M. (2023). Beyond the nexus family–business: introducing the family business service ecosystem. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 29(3), 783-798. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijebr-05-2022-0453

Randerson, K., & Fayolle, A. (2021). Family Entrepreneurship Education: Where Are We? Where Do We Need to Go from Here?. Family Entrepreneurship: Insights from Leading Experts on Successful Multi-Generational Entrepreneurial Families, 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66846-4_14

Randerson, K., Bettinelli, C., Fayolle, A., & Anderson, A. (2015a). Family entrepreneurship as a field of research: Exploring its contours and contents. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 6(3), 143-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2015.08.002

Randerson, K., Dossena, G., & Fayolle, A. (2016). The futures of family business: family entrepreneurship. Futures, 75, 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.10.008

Randerson, K., Frank, H., Dibrell, C., & Memili, E. (2021). From family to families: pushing family entrepreneurship forward. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 33(5-6), 369-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1727091

Randerson, K., Seaman, C., Daspit, J. J., & Barrédy, C. (2020). Institutional influences on entrepreneurial behaviours in the family entrepreneurship context: towards an integrative framework. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 26(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijebr-01-2020-824

Randerson, K., & Radu-Lefebvre, M. (2021). Managing Ambivalent Emotions in Family Businesses: Governance Mechanisms for the Family, Business, and Ownership Systems. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 11(3), 159-176. https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2020-0274

Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing. https://doi.org/10.33568/rbs.2409

Rogoff, E. G., & Heck, R. K. Z. (2003). Evolving research in entrepreneurship and family business: Recognizing family as the oxygen that feeds the fire of entrepreneurship. Journal of business venturing, 18(5), 559-566. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(03)00009-0

Seaman, C., Bent, R., & Unis, A. (2016). Family entrepreneurship culture, entrepreneurial intent, futures and foresight in Scottish Pakistani communities. Futures, 75, 83-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.09.006

Tagiuri, R., & Davis, J. (1996). Bivalent attributes of the family firm. Family Business Review, 9(2), 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.1996.00199.x

Welter, F. (2011), Contextualizing entrepreneurship – conceptual challenges and ways forward. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(1), 165-184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00427.x

Yu, A., Lumpkin, G., Sorenson, R. L., & Brigham, K. H. (2012). The landscape of family business outcomes: A summary and numerical taxonomy of dependent variables. Family Business Review, 25(1), 33–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486511430329

Zahra, S. A., & Sharma, P. (2004). Family Business Research: A Strategic Reflection. Family Business Review, 17(4), 331–346. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2004.00022.x

Published
2024-03-22
How to Cite
Randerson, Kathleen. 2024. “Food for Thought: Family Entrepreneurship in Four Questions ”. Bulletin of Economic Studies 78 (234), 57-76. https://doi.org/10.18543/bee.2752.