Riassunto analitico
Family-owned businesses are recognized as the backbone of the global economy playing a starring role in driving modern economies’ economic growth, job creation and innovation.
The process of globalization and its effects have strongly impacted these firms which are more and more pushed towards considering internationalization as an imperative decision to survive in the increasingly competitive global market.
This phenomenon has captured considerable attention from scholars of different disciplinary backgrounds leading to a growing body of literature aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the dynamics of family firms internationalization.
This particular form of enterprises presents peculiar features stemming from their familiar nature, that set them apart from other types of business entities. In this regard, Socioemotional Wealth considerations, family and business overlapping, intergenerational succession, family capital exert a strong impact on these firms’ strategic decision-making processes and overall organizational dynamics. In light of these unique characteristics, this Master thesis aims at exploring the motivations, strategies and determinants associated with the international expansion of family-owned businesses, placing a particular emphasis on the role played by their distinctive features in facilitating or restraining their internationalization path.
The first part of the thesis will provide an overview of the key literature and state of research on family businesses and family firms’ internationalization research areas. This general background will serve as a foundation to answer the primary research question of this thesis:
“Which are the family firms’ intrinsic factors enhancing and inhibiting their international expansion process?”
Further sub research questions that will be addressed are the following:
- “Which are the motivations at the basis of the firm’s decision to internationalize?”
- “Which path of internationalization family firms’ follow when accessing the global arena?”
The initial theoretical framework will be followed by a qualitative analysis based on a single case study approach conducted over Rivi Magnetics, a Small and Medium sized family-owned business.
In this regard, the motives, internationalization strategies and path, as well as the factors facilitating and restraining its international experience have been identified, analysed and presented.
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