Family ownership concentration and firm internationalization: integrating principal-principal and socioemotional wealth perspectives

Rosalia Santulli (), Mariateresa Torchia (), Andrea Calabrò () and Carmen Gallucci ()
Additional contact information
Rosalia Santulli: University of Salerno
Mariateresa Torchia: International University of Monaco, Groupe INSEEC U.
Carmen Gallucci: University of Salerno

Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 2019, vol. 17, issue 2, No 4, 220-248

Abstract: Abstract The inherent heterogeneity characterizing the universe of family firms, especially because of the existence of different family ownership “constellations,” might explain the highly inconsistent results of the effect of family ownership on internationalization outcomes. Stemming from a principal-principal perspective, the aim of this study is to understand whether and how different levels of family ownership concentration affect the degree of firms’ internationalization. We test our main hypotheses on a sample of 455 German family firms. Our main findings suggest the existence of a U-shaped relationship between family ownership concentration and the degree of a family firm’s internationalization. Furthermore, we consider the moderating effect of socioemotional wealth (SEW) and hypothesize that a higher degree of identification of family members with the firm may reduce the negative effects of an equal distribution of family ownership among family members. We find that SEW moderates the U-shaped relationship in such a way that family firms with an equal distribution of shares among the main family shareholders reach higher degrees of internationalization when the level of SEW is high. Résumé L’hétérogénéité inhérente à l’univers des entreprises familiales, en raison de l’existence de différentes «constellations» de propriété familiale, peut expliquer les résultats très contradictoires de l’effet de la propriété familiale sur le niveau d’internationalisation des entreprises. En utilisant la perspective « principal-principal », l’objectif de cette étude est. de comprendre si et comment les différents niveaux de concentration de la propriété familiale affectent le degré d’internationalisation des entreprises. Les hypothèses sont testées sur un échantillon de 455 entreprises familiales allemandes. Nos principaux résultats montrent l’existence d’une relation en forme de U entre la concentration de la propriété familiale et le degré d’internationalisation des entreprises familiales. De plus, nous considérons l’effet modérateur du modèle de la richesse socio-émotionnelle et affirmons qu’un degré plus élevé d’identification des membres de la famille avec l’entreprise, peut réduire les effets négatifs d’une répartition égale de la propriété familiale entre les membres de la famille. Nous constatons que la richesse socio-émotionnelle modère la relation en forme de U de manière que les entreprises familiales, à répartition égale des actions entre les principaux actionnaires de la famille, atteignent un degré d’internationalisation plus élevé lorsque le niveau de la richesse socio-émotionnelle est. élevé.

Keywords: Family ownership concentration; Internationalization; Principal-principal conflict; Socioemotional wealth; Herfindahl index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10843-019-00245-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:kap:jinten:v:17:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10843-019-00245-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ip/journal/10843/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10843-019-00245-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Entrepreneurship is currently edited by Hamid Etemad

More articles in Journal of International Entrepreneurship from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().