A Research Proposal to Examine Entrepreneurship in Family Business

Abstract

This paper builds on existing theoretical and empirical studies in the areas of family business and entrepreneurship. It uses Dubin´s theory building framework to propose a model for conducting research of family businesses and its linkage to entrepreneurial activities in Mexico. This works starts by describing the concepts of family business and explains the importance that these definitions can have on the variables to be included in the research. After that, the paper explains how the concept of “familiness” relates to the essence definition of family business. Using the resource-based view (RBV), agency theory, and social capital theories we describe how social capital resources are the basis for building firm capabilities and competitive advantages that influence firm’s performances. Based on this perspective, a theoretical model, laws of interaction, a set of propositions and suggestions for further research are provided.

Keywords

• entrepreneurship
• family business
• familiness
• business performance