Family ownership and family involvement as antecedents of strategic action: A longitudinal study of initial international entry

This study integrates behavioral agency theory with the conditions of willingness and ability to investigate how family ownership and family involvement affect the likelihood of initial international entry, both directly and interactively. A firm's initial international entry—its first expansion into a foreign market—is considered a major, and often risky, strategic action that enables a firm to compete and grow. Among family firms, variance in initial international entry is theoretically explained by the family's willingness and ability to participate. Using survival analysis on data representing 190 different family firms across 10 years, our findings support hypotheses suggesting that family ownership and involvement decrease the likelihood of initial international entry. However, these two forms of family control also act as interactive substitutes in relation to initial international entry likelihood. Our findings provide for a more nuanced understanding of family control heterogeneity in relationship to major strategic actions.