Firms within Families: Enterprising in Diverse Country Contexts - Hardcover

`This book takes a serious look at how the family-related factors of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) motivations and work-family interface (WFI) strategies and experiences influence owner-managed businesses and business owner-managers in the US, Germany/Switzerland, China, Brazil and India. It will be of especial interest to entrepreneurship and family business scholars looking for comparative empirical research on the family and contextual embeddedness of entrepreneurial activity.' -- Pramodita Sharma, Family Business Review `This is a wonderful book and very timely. For a while now, scholars have discussed the manifold influences of family on business and of business on family. This book is a must-read for all of us interested in family entrepreneurship, not least because of its theoretical ideas, but also because of the unique empirical data on "firms within families", presented for a wide variety of countries, amongst them, Brazil, China and India. The editors have done a superb job in bringing together a group of leading scholars on family business, thus widening our perspectives on what constitutes a family business.' -- Friederike Welter, Institut fur Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn and University of Siegen, Germany `This excellent book addresses a new area of research within entrepreneurship and family business. Understanding the impact of both family and country contexts, or what the editors - all leading authorities in the entrepreneurship and family business fields - call "double embeddedness" on enterprising activities, is a very important but previously under-researched topic. The book's chapters offer invaluable insights into the similarities and differences between developed and developing countries. This makes the book a unique and much needed source of inspiration for all researchers who are interested in exploring and comparing entrepreneurship and family business topics in diverse country settings.' -- - Mattias Nordqvist, Joenkoeping International Business School, Joenkoeping University, Sweden `The authors have heeded recent calls to investigate the double embeddedness of businesses within families and within national contexts. Using a multinational sample drawn from 6 countries and 4 continents, and with original survey data collected from almost 1400 respondents, the authors provide a rich conceptual framework for understanding the work family interface. In particular, they emphasize the non-economic outcomes associated with business enterprise, focusing on the concept of "socio-economic wealth." The book is truly comparative in several senses, not only comparing family and non-family firms but also making comparisons across nations, with some surprising conclusions about similarities and differences. I highly recommend this book to all scholars interested in family business, entrepreneurship, and the non-economic aspects of commercial ventures.' -- Howard Aldrich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, US

Just as much entrepreneurial activity is embedded within families, many families are embedded in business enterprising. And both are embedded in broader economic, institutional and cultural environments that shape their experience and development. Firms within Families: Enterprising in Diverse Country Contexts investigates this `double embeddedness' of business ownership and management through two illuminating sets of empirical studies. Part I focuses upon the family-oriented goal of socio-emotional wealth and its association with a firm's strategic orientations, strategies and performance. Part II examines strategies and experiences at the work-family interface and their implications for an owner-manager's psychological well-being. Both parts feature diverse studies from the United States, Switzerland/Germany, China, Brazil and India. The findings from this unique collaboration reveal intriguing similarities and differences in the influence of family-related factors upon owner-managers and their firms within distinct socio-economic regions of the world. It will be of especial interest to scholars of entrepreneurship, family enterprise and international business.