Relational Embeddedness and Firm Growth: Comparing Spousal and Sibling Entrepreneurs

Miriam Bird () and Thomas Zellweger ()
Additional contact information
Miriam Bird: Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of St. Gallen, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland; Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Creation, Stockholm School of Economics, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Thomas Zellweger: Center for Family Business, University of St. Gallen, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland

Organization Science, 2018, vol. 29, issue 2, 264-283

Abstract: Integrating relational embeddedness arguments with Penrosean growth theory, we compare the growth of firms run by spousal entrepreneurs with firms run by sibling entrepreneurs. We theorize that trust, identification, and mutual obligations—the three facets of relational embeddedness—are more pronounced in spousal teams than in sibling teams, which provides spousal teams with advantages over sibling teams in generating firm growth. Probing a sample of all private firms in Sweden over a three-year period, we find support for this conjecture. Exploring boundary conditions to this baseline relationship, we also find that firm age weakens the growth advantages of spousal teams over sibling teams and that industry experience heterogeneity within the entrepreneurial team reinforces these growth advantages. These results provide important contributions for research on firm growth, the social embeddedness of firms, entrepreneurship, and family business.

Keywords: entrepreneurial teams; family firms; firm growth; relational embeddedness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1174 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:29:y:2018:i:2:p:264-283

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().