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Entrepreneurial orientation in long-lived family firms

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Abstract

We apply a key construct from the entrepreneurship field, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), in the context of long-lived family firms. Our qualitative in-depth case studies show that a permanently high level of the five EO dimensions is not a necessary condition for long-term success, as traditional entrepreneurship and EO literature implicitly suggest. Rather, we claim that the level of EO is dynamically adapted over time and that the original EO scales (autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness) do not sufficiently capture the full extent of entrepreneurial behaviors in long-lived family firms. Based on these considerations we suggest extending the existing EO scales to provide a more fine-grained depiction of firm-level corporate entrepreneurship in long-lived family firms.

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Notes

  1. STEP is a worldwide research project, investigating entrepreneurship in the context of multigeneration family firms; see www.stepproject.org.

  2. These case study protocols are available on request from the authors.

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  1. Center for Family Business, University of St. Gallen, Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Thomas Zellweger & Philipp Sieger

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  1. Thomas Zellweger
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Correspondence to Thomas Zellweger.

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Zellweger, T., Sieger, P. Entrepreneurial orientation in long-lived family firms. Small Bus Econ 38, 67–84 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-010-9267-6

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