The Role of Board of Directors in the Internationalisation Process of Small and Medium Sized Family Businesses
International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 393-411
19 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2010 Last revised: 29 May 2012
Date Written: December 10, 2009
Abstract
Internationalisation is one of the biggest challenges for family businesses. Although prosperous locally, many of these firms often face several difficulties in entering foreign markets. To date, there are contrasting results with respect to the internationalisation behaviour of family businesses and the role of boards of directors in this process. Adopting the resource-based view of the firm, the paper focuses on the determinants of the internationalisation pathways taken by family businesses. Basing on a sample of 146 small and medium sized Norwegian family businesses, we find that the board is an important strategic resource contributing to their international expansion. The results highlight the existence of various relationships between board member characteristics, board tasks performance and the export intensity. In particular, we find that family businesses with higher levels of non-family board members are more likely to be international. Moreover, we find that boards’ involvement in advisory tasks contributes positively to the export intensity. The implications for theory and practice and future research directions are discussed.
Keywords: family business, export intensity, internationalisation, board of directors, non-family board members, advisory tasks
JEL Classification: G3, M1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Managing Resources: Linking Unique Resources, Management and Wealth Creation in Family Firms
By David G. Sirmon and Michael A. Hitt
-
Managing Firm Resources in Dynamic Environments to Create Value: Looking Inside the Black Box
By David G. Sirmon, Michael A. Hitt, ...
-
A Model of Strategic Entrepreneurship: The Construct and its Dimensions
By R. Duane Ireland, Michael A. Hitt, ...
-
Knowledge Search in International Cooperative Ventures
By Oded Shenkar and Jiatao Li
-
Creating Value in the Face of Declining Performance: Firm Strategies and Organizational Recovery
By J.l. Morrow, David G. Sirmon, ...
-
Resource Management in Dyadic Competitive Rivalry: The Effects of Resource Bundling and Deployment
By David G. Sirmon, Steve Gove, ...
-
Toward a Model of Strategic Outsourcing
By Tim R. Holcomb and Michael A. Hitt
-
Making the Most of What You've Got: Managerial Ability as a Source of Resource Value Creation
By Tim R. Holcomb, R. Michael Holmes, ...