Regional Influences on the Prevalence of Family Versus Non-Family Start-Ups
45 Pages Posted: 2 Jul 2013
Date Written: July 1, 2013
Abstract
We integrate insights from family business and organizational ecology into the entrepreneurship field by constructing a theoretical framework that explains how the regional context impacts family and non-family start-ups in differing ways. Regional count data models based on a rich longitudinal dataset reveal that while economic factors such as population size and growth in regions are primarily associated with the number of non-family start-ups, factors related to regional embeddedness, such as pre-existing small family businesses as well as favorable community attitudes toward small businesses, are more strongly associated with the number of family start-ups. Our research provides support for the notion that ‘the regional context’ is an important yet under-theorized area for research on venture creation and family business.
Keywords: Family Business, Start-up, Population Ecology, Regional Science
JEL Classification: R12, M13, L21
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