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Publisher:
Wiley
Publication date:
2021-02-01
ISBN:
1740-4754

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Does Growth Represent Chimera or Bellerophon for a Family Business? The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Family Influence Nuances

    Growth brings lifeblood to sustain longevity across generation, but also critical challenges for family business. Relying on the behavioral agency model and its assumptions on risk‐bearing in family firms, we discuss and test the effect of family involvement in the top management team (TMT) on family business growth. We use an input‐behavior‐outcome framework based on the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation. We also consider the moderating role of different ownership structures on the relationship between family involvement in the TMT on entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Results based on survey data collected by the STEP research consortium support the hypothesized negative effect of family involvement in the TMT on growth, fully mediated by EO. We also find that the presence of passive family members as majority shareholders and multigenerational involvement in ownership are important contingencies of the direct effect. Our evidence points to the fact that risk‐bearing in family firms is not just dependent on the degree of family involvement in management, but also on the interests of different types of shareholders. We show that the at‐times stylized negative traits of family firms are not universally valid, and that a comprehensive view of family influence over the business is needed to ascertain whether and to what extent these firms actually achieve growth.

  • Doubly Disadvantaged: Gender, Spatially Concentrated Deprivation and Nascent Entrepreneurial Activity

    Drawing on human capital, intersectionality and mixed embeddedness theory, we test hypotheses on the relationship between gender differences in human capital and gender differences in nascent entrepreneurial activity across geographical space, and the moderating effect of spatially concentrated deprivation on this relationship. Using UK data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, we find that the disadvantaged position of female nascent entrepreneurs arises from social exclusion, and specifically that the gender differences in nascent entrepreneurial activity are directly related to differences in general and specific human capital across locales. Moreover, in deprived locations, women as a group do not gain from any human capital advantage they might have over men, causing a double disadvantage for women. Our results make a novel contribution to the literature on disadvantage entrepreneurship, and we discuss policy options to tackle double disadvantage in deprived locales.

  • Tokenism Revisited: When Organizational Culture Challenges Masculine Norms, the Experience of Token Is Transformed

    Extant research on tokenism has documented the adverse consequences for employees in minority positions and how women's possibility of action is constrained in male‐dominated contexts. We present an in‐depth qualitative case study of a male‐dominated organization in a masculine industry in which, despite all expectations, the experience of tokenism for minority women is ambiguous. Furthermore, these women also display a strong agentic role in an organization in which culture favours gender equality. This case reveals an aspect previously overlooked in studies of tokenism: the importance of organizational culture. By exposing and challenging the implicit masculine norm through its organizational culture, this organization actively engages in the change of gendering processes and contributes to establishing an alternative norm. Theoretical contributions show the impact of normative control on the experience of tokens, and how it provides a frame for action toward gender equality.

  • Entrepreneurial Process Studies Using Insider Action Research: Opportunities & Challenges for Entrepreneurship Scholarship

    This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of adopting insider action research (IAR) in entrepreneurial process studies. It employs a critical reflexive and narrative approach in examining our own lived experience in a real‐time digital entrepreneurial journey spanning three years while triangulating it with experiential knowledge in another role as dissertation supervisors. Our live case illustrates that IAR, when it combines reflective practice, cooperative inquiry and design science, represents a suitable but under‐exploited methodology for entrepreneurship scholarship. We build on this knowledge to offer a model for incorporating this methodology in entrepreneurship research and education. Consequently, we contribute towards responding to the need for phenomenon‐methodology fit in the discipline. Ultimately, the paper's value lies in its effort towards resolving the seemingly perennial question regarding the legitimacy of entrepreneurship as a distinctive domain of scholarship.

  • Editorial
  • Self‐efficacy and Success of Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs: The Moderating Role of Resilience

    This paper aims to explore the antecedents of success in the context of entrepreneurs with specific disadvantages, namely those with physical challenges, and those with mental limitations, such as dyslexia and attention deficit‐hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). With a sample of 114 disadvantaged entrepreneurs located in Italy, the research explores the relationship between self‐efficacy and entrepreneurial success (both at the individual and business level) and the moderating role of individual resilience. Implementing OLS analysis, findings suggest that self‐efficacy and resilience improve individual success of entrepreneurs and that their joint effect is positive. Slightly differently, it has not been found a positive direct impact of resilience on business success, while the moderating effect is significant and positive. We compare the results with findings from a sample of non‐disadvantaged entrepreneurs (108) thus providing diverse implications, opening up a debate around the different antecedents (and relative effects) of entrepreneur success at individual and business level.

  • Issue Information

    No abstract is available for this article.

  • Does Increased Generational Involvement Foster Business Growth? The Moderating Roles of Family Involvement in Ownership and Management

    Building upon the upper echelon perspective, we examine the effect of generational involvement in management on various measures of business growth and consider different levels of family participation. Specifically, we argue that generational involvement and the participation of family actors in ownership and management foster cognitive diversity at the TMT level, which may ultimately positively or negatively impact family business growth. Our theory, which is tested using a longitudinal sample of unlisted Belgian family firms, contributes primarily to the literature related to the determinants of family firm growth, which, to date, has paid limited attention to the combined effect of different family involvement factors.

  • Researching Family Business Growth

    This paper is the first in a special section of the European Management Review dedicated to the growth of family businesses. We provide a literature review of 54 articles written in this research field, based on a framework that highlights the antecedents and the outcomes of growth at the family and the business levels. We also offer a brief overview of the contributions of each of the papers in this special section and conclude by identifying relevant research gaps to propose a number of future research directions.

  • Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness: A Typology and Model of Immigrant Entrepreneurs

    This study addresses the diversity of extant models and theoretical interpretations of the immigrant entrepreneurship phenomenon. Combining an extensive literature review with the use of Bourdieu's theory of social practice, we develop a general model of immigrant entrepreneurship that identifies four different entrepreneurial paths, each characterised by a specific combination of personal resources, network embeddedness, individual habitus, and targeted opportunities. Through the interpretative lens of this model, foreignness can represent either a liability or a competitive advantage for the immigrant, depending on the entrepreneurial context and strategy. The proposed model provides useful insights into the phenomenon of immigrant entrepreneurship for academics, entrepreneurs and policy makers, offering a comprehensive framework which does not invalidate the extant models, but rather integrates them into a larger perspective.

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