Family in business and innovation are considered vital for firm performance and economic growth. Scholars claim that studying this relationship is important, as there are ‘strong theoretical reasons’ to believe that a firm’s innovation, hence firm performance, is positively and/or negatively influenced by the family. Research on the interception of the two fields is growing in developed countries, but is still nascent in developing country contexts. Hence, this study seeks to explore and further existing knowledge on this relationship in such a context. This investigation’ explores how family influences the firm’s innovation activities. It explores particularly the concept of ‘familiness’, which depicts those resources unique to a firm due to the involvement of the family members. Two approaches to ‘familiness’ are adopted, dimensions and resources. Concerning dimensions, three characteristics: components of involvement, essence and organisational identity were explored. The resources approach in this study includes four elements: financial, physical, human and social. In addition to this, the positive or negative nature of the family influence on each resource is considered. These two approaches of ‘familiness’ serves as the theoretical lens for understanding innovation comprehensively by taking into account the types, magnitudes, strategies and sources. This study adopted a qualitative approach to explore this phenomenon. Data were collected from six Colombian family firms through a self-administered questionnaire, followed by in-depth semi-structured interviews with family and nonfamily members in the form of a multi-case study design within purposefully selected firms. Triangulation was achieved by using different sources of information, such as documents, catalogues, newspapers, websites, and academic case studies. Due to the deductive and inductive nature of this study, data were explored and thematically analysed by coding into pre-existing categories suggested by the initial conceptual framework, while new themes emerged from the data. Results showed that when all three ‘familiness’ dimensions are present, there is an impact on the innovation activities within family firms. With respect to resources, the study highlighted the importance of the family influence on the firm’s human resource, and its impact on organisational innovation. This is particular the case when non-family members are more involved in top management teams. An intriguing finding is the relationship between the family’s foreign background and its influence of the firm’s overall innovation activities. In addition to this, by viewing the findings in this study as a whole, it is demonstrated that family firms in developing countries are innovative, which is contrary to existing studies on this subject area. Furthermore, it is advocated that this phenomenon would be better understood and further captured through the entrepreneurship lens. Hence, this is in line with recent views calling for a closer interception of family business and entrepreneurship. This study addresses these issues by weaving in Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction’ and Kirzner’s ‘entrepreneurial discovery’ approaches to innovation to reconciliate inconsistent findings in the field of ‘innovation and family firms’. This is due to all firm’s engaging in innovative activities in an incremental (Kirznerian) nature, as opposed to a ‘radical’ (Schumpeterian) one, whereby the latter has been the main focus of previous studies. This thesis advocates the need for public and private institutions to implement family business and innovation courses at various levels throughout the country, in order to enable young generations to be expose to the challenges and opportunities that globalisation brings to developing economies. The study highlights the importance of exploring this phenomenon using the family itself as the unit of analysis, as opposed to the firm, in order to move the field forwards. Future research should test the conceptual framework that emerged from this study, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in family firms from other industries, and context within Latin America or beyond.

Family business is a typical organizational form around the world and dominates the economic landscape of many nations. Scholars propose that the reason why family businesses are different from non-family business because of resources that are distinctive to a firm as a result of the interactions between family, family members and business. The bundle of resources that have been theoretically developed within the resource-based view framework are identified as ¡§Familiness¡¨ of the firm. Familiness is considered as a source of competitive advantage to family firms, but some scholars believe that the resources are necessary but not sufficient to achieve a competitive advantage. Resources must also be managed and deployed effectively through capabilities. Marketing capabilities is one of the most important capabilities of a firm, there are many studies have pointed out that the marketing capabilities and business performance are significantly related. The purpose of this paper is to exam the relationships among the familiness of individual family firm and their marketing capabilities through the resource-based view framework. This paper conducted a convenience sampling questionnaire survey to collect data, using the members of "Taiwan Fastener Association", "Taiwan Watch & Clock Industrial Association¡¨, ¡§Taiwan Fluid Power Association", and the companies that National Sun Yat-sen University MBA¡¦s students work for as sample, issued 571 questionnaires, 134 valid questionnaires were retuned, the effective response rate is 23.5%. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, multivariate analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The results of this paper show that all of family human resource, family social resource and patiant financial resource have significantly positive correlation with marketing capabilities. The managers of family business can take advantage of such unique resources to strengthen marketing capabilities that create sustainable competitive advantage and achieve superior performance.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relational contradictions experienced by family business daughters, and to investigate how they responded to these tensions. For this project, I interviewed twelve second and third generation family business daughters from eleven different family businesses. I utilized research procedures similar to grounded theory to analyze my interview transcripts. I examined relational tensions at both a personal level and an organizational level involving the larger work-family system. At a personal level, the connection/separation contradiction is significant to family business daughters and to their relationships with work and family. Many family business daughters helped at the family business because it was a means of emotional connection to family members who work there. Some family business daughters went so far as sacrificing their personal goals for family business goals. At an organizational level, one advantage of working at a family business was the flexibility it provided family business daughters to respond to family emergencies. Yet ironically, family business daughters were not granted the same accommodations for schedule demands associated with childcare. Family business daughters who were mothers often felt as if they could not be good mothers and productive workers. I explored the gendered basis of these different tensions, particularly as they arise from the ideology of separate spheres and patriarchal assumptions concerning the public-private divide and the assumed separation of family and work. I argue family business daughters have inherited a phenomenal work ethic that makes them successful business women yet they have also inherited the legacy of the founder's sexist attitudes toward motherhood and work. These sexist attitudes live in the organizational culture, and family business mothers adopt a separate spheres discourse in which they must choose between their work and their family. They address these relational tensions through the strategy of balancing family and work; however, this places family business daughters in a position where they feel as if they have to sacrifice in both the areas. I contend the family business should treat its members as "whole beings" by merging family into work.

Familiness has become widely accepted as the appropriate construct representing the unique bundle of resources arising out of family involvement in business. However as yet we do not fully understand the types of familiness or the conditions that give rise to them and as such familiness remains in need of further exploration. This research explores the familiness construct and its role in perpetuating entrepreneurial activity in the family business through the development and deployment of an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) over multiple generations. The Resource-Based View (RBV) is the adopted firm level framework used to identify the unique bundle of family resources that represent familiness. These resources are then explored for their contribution to nurturing and perpetuating an EO, thereby creating a source of competitive advantage. The research also explores the association of EO to the achievement of the firm’s nonfinancial objectives. Using exploratory in-depth qualitative case studies of four multigenerational Australian family firms, data was collected via semi-structured interviews, observations, and secondary documents. NVivo assisted with the coding and analysis of data to identify common patterns and themes from both within-case and across-case analyses.Six resource dimensions were found to represent the familiness resource bundle: reputation, experience – insights and skills, learning, decision-making, relationships, and networks. These resource dimensions, identified by their prevalence across all four cases, are spread across the resource categories (human, organizational, and process) and thus confirm the widespread potential of the family’s influence in business. The resource dimensions displayed a paradoxical nature and the ability to manage these paradoxes enabled these firms to exploit their familiness advantages (f+) and simultaneously mitigate the disadvantages (f-). Managing the paradoxical nature was central to the multigenerational success of these firms. Three of the six dimensions (experience – insights and skills, decision-making, and networks) were instrumental in influencing the development of the firm’s EO while three other dimensions (reputation, learning, and relationships) were more closely aligned with a market, learning, and communication orientation. The findings also suggest that family firms are better able to address non-financial objectives when they have strong EOs that engaged them in entrepreneurial activities. All interpretations of the findings are integrated into a conceptual model for future empirical analysis.The study contributes to research by identifying six dimensions (familiness resources model) that constitute the familiness resource bundle and through which family influence is most prevalent and best examined within the business. The study suggests that the paradoxical nature of these dimensions highlights conditions that give rise to familiness advantages (f+) or disadvantages (f-) and that managing these paradoxes gives rise to sustained competitive advantage. The study also proposes that the family is most influential in driving the firm’s EO: by being exposed to internal and external experiences that heighten their ability for opportunity recognition; by balancing the process (informal or formal), speed (fast or slow), and forum (concentrated or collaborative) of decisions; and by integrating and exploiting the firm’s strong and weak network ties. Finally the study confirms a close association between a firm’s EO and its non-financial objectives. The study thus encourages family firms to pursue entrepreneurial activity, not only because it sustains their livelihood over generations, but because it also assists in meeting the family’s non-financial objectives.

Familiness has become widely accepted as the appropriate construct representing the unique bundle of resources arising out of family involvement in business. However as yet we do not fully understand the types of familiness or the conditions that give rise to them and as such familiness remains in need of further exploration. This research explores the familiness construct and its role in perpetuating entrepreneurial activity in the family business through the development and deployment of an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) over multiple generations. The Resource-Based View (RBV) is the adopted firm level framework used to identify the unique bundle of family resources that represent familiness. These resources are then explored for their contribution to nurturing and perpetuating an EO, thereby creating a source of competitive advantage. The research also explores the association of EO to the achievement of the firm’s nonfinancial objectives. Using exploratory in-depth qualitative case studies of four multigenerational Australian family firms, data was collected via semi-structured interviews, observations, and secondary documents. NVivo assisted with the coding and analysis of data to identify common patterns and themes from both within-case and across-case analyses.Six resource dimensions were found to represent the familiness resource bundle: reputation, experience – insights and skills, learning, decision-making, relationships, and networks. These resource dimensions, identified by their prevalence across all four cases, are spread across the resource categories (human, organizational, and process) and thus confirm the widespread potential of the family’s influence in business. The resource dimensions displayed a paradoxical nature and the ability to manage these paradoxes enabled these firms to exploit their familiness advantages (f+) and simultaneously mitigate the disadvantages (f-). Managing the paradoxical nature was central to the multigenerational success of these firms. Three of the six dimensions (experience – insights and skills, decision-making, and networks) were instrumental in influencing the development of the firm’s EO while three other dimensions (reputation, learning, and relationships) were more closely aligned with a market, learning, and communication orientation. The findings also suggest that family firms are better able to address non-financial objectives when they have strong EOs that engaged them in entrepreneurial activities. All interpretations of the findings are integrated into a conceptual model for future empirical analysis.The study contributes to research by identifying six dimensions (familiness resources model) that constitute the familiness resource bundle and through which family influence is most prevalent and best examined within the business. The study suggests that the paradoxical nature of these dimensions highlights conditions that give rise to familiness advantages (f+) or disadvantages (f-) and that managing these paradoxes gives rise to sustained competitive advantage. The study also proposes that the family is most influential in driving the firm’s EO: by being exposed to internal and external experiences that heighten their ability for opportunity recognition; by balancing the process (informal or formal), speed (fast or slow), and forum (concentrated or collaborative) of decisions; and by integrating and exploiting the firm’s strong and weak network ties. Finally the study confirms a close association between a firm’s EO and its non-financial objectives. The study thus encourages family firms to pursue entrepreneurial activity, not only because it sustains their livelihood over generations, but because it also assists in meeting the family’s non-financial objectives.

This cumulative dissertation includes three papers and one teaching case study. Together, they focus on topics highlighting the distinctiveness of family firms and new ventures. While the first paper analyzes the academic debate over the familiness concept in family firm research, the second paper focuses on explaining the unique relational dynamics between family and non-family managers in top management teams. The third paper aims to derive design designs for family firm specific corporate accelerators. The teaching case study shows how a growing new venture may strike a balance between coping with increasing organizational complexity and maintaining its distinct entrepreneurial spirit.

The wood-based building products industry has experienced significant turbulence over the past several decades as a function of multiple forces including among others globalization, product and process innovation, and shifting customer and consumer interest and demands. Collectively, these changes have challenged the historical tenets which have defined industry strategy and competition in the realm of basic products and contributed to consolidation and labor reductions. Consequently, an onus has been placed on industry participants to better understand and adapt to the new competitive landscape or risk loss of competitive advantages built on the practices suited to historical tradition. However, a limited range of work that considers the machinations of turbulence and resulting strategic implications has been directed toward the industry particularly where differentiation of products is limited. A contributing factor for this deficiency is the relative stability that has defined the industry for generations due in part to limited strategic variation beyond cost and production, limited cycles of technological and product innovation, commodity nature of many products, and passive manner of consumption. Accordingly, there is value in work that takes a critical and empirical view of industry changes in the context of both strategic and competitive implications, how participating firms address challenges, and what factors influence consumer purchase decisions. This work addresses this need through examination of each element, industry, firm, and consumer, in the context of turbulence, competition, and strategy and delineates previously unidentified considerations for competing in the new landscape. At the industry level, drivers of industry turbulence and subsequent strategic challenges, adaptations, and opportunities are identified and reviewed. Analysis suggests that improved strategy which considers organizational and product differentiation beyond cost and production efficiencies permits greater stability and increased leverage in the turbulent competitive environment. Recognizing a need for improved strategy, the firm level analysis employs a primary qualitative approach to isolate previously unidentified firm qualities analogous to successful deployment of a market orientation strategy using the resource based view of the firm as a framework for analysis. Connecting strategy to the consumer and product, theoretical consumer behavior constructs (consumption, behavior, and involvement) were connected to conceptualize dimensions of product differentiation capable of holding consumer appeal and acting as behavioral drivers in the passively consumed arena of primary wood-based building products. Taken together this work provides a view of strategic considerations within the wood-based building product industry that extends beyond previous work in several ways. First, by considering industry environment, firm strategy, and consumer behavior and product differentiation collectively in the manner described, this work provides a more vertically complete strategic perspective for industry participants. Second, within each chapter, findings and case based examples relevant to each element are presented. / Graduation date: 2012

L’entreprise familiale est omniprésente; en effet, c’est l'épine dorsale de la vie d'entreprise. Elle est le moteur du développement socio-économique et de la création de richesse dans toutes les nations. Elle apparaît incomparable à l’entreprise non familiale, et unique quant à ses caractéristiques, éléments constitutifs, défis et perspectives. Cependant, la taxonomie légale distinctive de cette entreprise se révèle absente et oubliée partout dans le monde, soit dans les pays du droit Civil ou de Common Law. Ce manque de reconnaissance juridique induit à régler les différends et les litiges survenus en suivant les voies légales classiques; ce qui prouve, généralement, une source d'injustice tant à l'individu qu’à la famille, et suscite des répercussions sociales et économiques remarquables. Par conséquent, afin de concevoir les dynamiques authentiques de cette entreprise, nous avons adopté la théorie de l'écosystème des quatre cercles qui permettra aux juristes de percevoir cette entreprise avec un regard singulier, désormais, en tant qu’une entreprise familiale et non plus en tant qu’une simple entreprise. En outre, cette mosaïque placera la «famille» au niveau de partie prenante « royale » qui subvient aux besoins de l’entreprise et fournie le «capital familial»; ce dernier renvoie souvent aux intangibles tout en évoquant les éléments fondamentaux moteurs qui orientent et dominent cette entreprise, et la transforment en une copropriété collective mixte plutôt qu'une propriété individuelle. Somme toute, une telle classification engendrera une définition juridique distinctive de l’entreprise familiale, ainsi que des arrangements légaux et structurels et des conséquences primordiales. / Family business is omnipresent as the backbone of the corporate life. It is the engine driver of the socio-economic development, and the fundamental source of wealth creation in all nations. Incomparable to nonfamily counterparts, family business reveals unique in its characteristics, constructs, challenges, and prospects. However, the legal differentiated taxonomy of this enterprise reveals absent and forgotten across the globe, whether in the common law system or the civil law system. The lack of the legal recognition of its uniqueness induces jurists to resolve disputes and litigations via the conventional legal channels. This often discloses as the source of injustice for individuals as well as the family, and echoes significant social and economic consequences. Correspondingly, in order to conceive the authentic dynamics of this enterprise, we have embraced the four circles ecosystem theory, which shall allow jurists to visualize this enterprise with a singular eye as a family business, no longer as a business. Besides, this pattern shall reveal the “family” as the “Royal Stakeholder” and the main provider of the “Family Capital”. Thus, the latter unveils the intangibles as the fundamental drivers that guide and control this enterprise, and then turn it into a mixed collective co-ownership, rather than an individual ownership. Ultimately, this classification generates the distinctive legal definition of the family business as well as the relevant arrangements, structures, and unavoidable consequences.