Entrepreneurial orientation and performance in private family firms: A configurational model

• Author: Jonathan Bauweraerts
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1513

Entrepreneurial orientation and performance in

private family firms: A configurational model

Jonathan Bauweraerts*

University of Mons, Belgium

Abstract

The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO)

and performance has received considerable attention from

the family business literature. However, little is known about

how EO, organizational parameters, and environmental

characteristics act in combination to inf‌luence family f‌irm

performance. Drawing on the socioemotional wealth per-

spective, this study proposes a conf‌igurational model that

considers the performance implications of EO, family man-

agement, and environmental dynamism. The empirical anal-

ysis indicates that the combination of family management,

low EO, and low environmental dynamism engenders the

best performance. The paper contributes to the family entre-

preneurship literature by identifying the conditions under

which EO leads to improved performance in family f‌irms,

and answers a recent call for more context-based investiga-

tions of the performance effects of family managers. © 2018

ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation, performance, family

f‌irms, family management

Résumé

La relation entre l’orientation entrepreneuriale (OE) et la

performance a reçu une attention particulière dans la

recherche sur l’entreprise familiale. Cependant, on sait

peu de choses sur la façon dont l’OE, les paramètres

organisationnels et les caractéristiques environnementales

interagissent pour inf‌luencer la performance de l’entreprise

familiale. En s’appuyant sur la perspective du patrimoine

socioaffectif, l’auteur de la présente étude propose un

modèle de conf‌iguration qui tient compte des répercussions

de l’OE, de la gestion familiale et du dynamisme de

l’environnement sur la performance. L’analyse empirique

révèle que la gestion familiale, une OE faible et un

dynamisme environnemental faible génèrent la meilleure

performance. L’étude est une contribution aux recherches

sur l’entrepreneuriat familial dans la mesure où elle cerne

les conditions dans lesquelles l’OE permet d’améliorer la

performance des entreprises familiales. Elle répond aussi à

un récent appel en faveur d’études plus contextuelles sur

l’inf‌luence qu’exerce les gestionnaires familiaux sur la per-

formance. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons,

Ltd.

Mots-clés: Orientation entrepreneuriale, rendement,

entreprises familiales, gestion familiale

Introduction

Most scholars point out that adopting an entrepreneurial

strategic orientation is a universal recipe for improving f‌i-

nancial performance (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996; Miller,

1986; Wiklund & Shepherd, 2005). However, recent ad-

vancements suggest that the relationship between entrepre-

neurial orientation (EO), that is the f‌irm-level

entrepreneurial posture that consists in engaging in innova-

tion (innovativeness) by carrying out risky initiatives (risk-

taking) in a proactive way (proactiveness) (Miller, 1983),

and f‌inancial performance is not so simple, and can vary in

terms of size and direction (Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin, &

Frese, 2009). Indeed, numerous studies apply a contingency

framework that integrates the moderating inf‌luence of inter-

nal and external factors to explain variations in the EO–

performance relationship (for instance, Alegre & Chiva,

2013; Brouthers, Nakos, & Dimitratos, 2015; Semrau,

Ambros, & Kraus, 2016).

Given the predominance of family f‌irms in the world

economy (Amit & Villalonga, 2014) and the underlying im-

portance of understanding how they reach entrepreneurial

success (Memili, Fang, Chrisman, & De Massis, 2015), fam-

ily business scholars employ this approach to determine how

specif‌ic organizational and environmental variables explain

*Please address correspondence to: Jonathan Bauweraerts, Assistant Profes-

sor, Accounting and management department, University of Mons,

Warocqué School of Business and Economics, Place Warocqué 17, 7000

Mons, Belgium. Email: jonathan.bauweraerts@umons.ac.be.

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

36: 418–431 (2019)

Published online 28 October 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1513

Can J Adm Sci

36(3), 418–431 (2019)© 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 418