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How family firm characteristics affect internationalization of Chinese family SMEs

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Abstract

This study investigates the effect of family characteristics on the internationalization activities of Chinese family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using a socioemotional wealth perspective. We suggest that family ownership negatively affects international expansion. Results using a sample of 1542 Chinese family SMEs support our hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between family ownership and international activities. Due to mixed findings in previous studies, we not only focus on both export intensity and export propensity, but also introduce family firm characteristics (i.e., presence of founder CEOs and family succession intention) as moderators. We argue that these moderators capture a temporal aspect of socioemotional wealth (SEW) and find that they strengthen the negative relationship between family ownership and internationalization. Our study contributes to family firm internationalization research by disentangling the relationship between family firm characteristics and internationalization, as well as SEW research.

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Notes

  1. The team is led by an array of governmental and nongovernmental organizations including All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee, and State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Two authors of this paper participated in designing and administering this questionnaire.

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Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 71673090, 71232009); the National Social Science Foundation of China (grant no. 15CGJ022); the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (grant no. 2017A030313408); and the Guangdong Social Science Foundation (grant no. GD16XGL4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Xueru Yang

  2. Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Jun Li

  3. University of North Carolina—Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC, 28223-0001, USA

    Laura J. Stanley & Franz W. Kellermanns

  4. Center for Family Enterprises, WHU (Otto Beisheim School of Management), Vallendar, Germany

    Franz W. Kellermanns

  5. Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Xinchun Li

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  1. Xueru Yang
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Correspondence to Jun Li.

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Yang, X., Li, J., Stanley, L.J. et al. How family firm characteristics affect internationalization of Chinese family SMEs. Asia Pac J Manag 37, 417–448 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-018-9579-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-018-9579-7

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