The Impact of the Family on Entrepreneurial Outcomes : The Role of Social Embeddedness

• Main Author: Bird, Miriam
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, Institutionen för Företagande och Ledning 2014
• Subjects: entrepreneurial outcomes; entrepreneurial process; family business; social embeddedness; social capital; venture creation; firm growth; entrepreneurial exit; succession; Business studies; Företagsekonomi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hhs:diva-2284; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-7258-935-3 (print); http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-7258-936-0 (pdf)

Most entrepreneurs have families that highly influence their business­ activities. However, scholars have paid limited attention to how the family as a specific social context impacts entrepreneurial outcomes, such as new venture creation, firm growth, and exit from entrepreneurship­. This thesis investigates how the family influences such outcomes at different levels of analysis: the individual level, the firm level, and the regional level.  The theoretical framework is developed by integrating the theory­ of social embeddedness with literature on family business and entrepreneurship­. Empirical evidence is based on a unique multi-level­ Swedish database combining individual-, firm-, and regional-level data. By providing an in-depth understanding of whether the family influence pertains to the whole entrepreneurial process or only to particular entrepreneurial outcomes, this thesis contributes to a new understanding of the family’s role in entrepreneurship. === <p>Diss. Stockholm :  Stockholm School of Economics, 2014.</p>