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New Theoretical Perspectives on Family Business Entrepreneurial Behavior

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Understanding Family Businesses

Part of the book series: International Studies in Entrepreneurship ((ISEN,volume 15))

Abstract

Family business leaders are often characterized as entrepreneurs (Aldrich and Cliff 2003 ; Shepherd and Haynie 2009 ). In attempting to understand the entrepreneurial thinking of family firm leaders, scholars have typically borrowed from the extant literature on entrepreneurship, which traditionally emphasizes characteristics of individual entrepreneurs such as their personalities, propensity for risk-taking, personal values, and so on. 1 However as Aldrich and Martinez ( 2003 ) point out, there are changes afoot in how entrepreneurship is being studied, including (a) a shift in theoretical emphasis from the characteristics of entrepreneurs as individuals to the consequences of their actions, (b) a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs use knowledge, resources, and networks to construct and reconstruct fi rms, and (c) a more sophisticated taxonomy of environmental forces at different levels of analysis (population, community, and society) that affect entrepreneurship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Examples of such research in the family business arena include Craig and Lindsay (2002), Davis and Harveston (2000), Kellermanns et al. (2008), Koiranen (2002), Littunen and Hyrsky (2000), Lumpkin et al. (2009), Pistrui et al. (2001), Pistrui et al. (2000), Rauch et al. (2009), Zahra (2005), Zhao et al. (2010).

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge Roz Shaw (née Hawkins) for giving her time for the interview. They also acknowledge the insightful and helpful comments of Dr. Justin Craig in the preparation of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Marketing, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Mary A. Barrett

  2. School of Business, Bond University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4229, Australia

    Ken Moores

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  1. Mary A. Barrett
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  2. Ken Moores
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Correspondence to Mary A. Barrett .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. TED ROGERS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, TORONTO, M5B 2K3, Ontario, Canada

    ALAN CARSRUD

  2. Dept. Business Administration, Swedish University Abo, Henriksgatan 7, Turku, 20500, Finland

    Malin Brännback

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Barrett, M.A., Moores, K. (2012). New Theoretical Perspectives on Family Business Entrepreneurial Behavior. In: CARSRUD, A., Brännback, M. (eds) Understanding Family Businesses. International Studies in Entrepreneurship, vol 15. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0911-3_16

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