Title: Turning innovativeness into domestic and international corporate venturing: the moderating effect of high family ownership and influence

Authors: Andrea Calabrò; Tommaso Minola; Giovanna Campopiano; Thilo Pukall

Addresses: Witten Institute for Family Business, University of Witten/Herdecke, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 58448 Witten, Germany ' Department of Management Information and Production Engineering, CYFE - Research Center for Young and Family Enterprise, University of Bergamo, Bergamo BG, Italy ' Witten Institute for Family Business, University of Witten/Herdecke, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 58448 Witten, Germany ' Witten Institute for Family Business, University of Witten/Herdecke, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 58448 Witten, Germany

Abstract: Stemming from socioemotional wealth preservation arguments, the aim of this paper is to analyse whether high family ownership and influence moderate the relationship between innovativeness and modes of corporate venturing activities (national vs. international venturing). The main hypotheses are tested on a sample of 235 firms using structural equation modelling techniques in the form of partial least squares regression. Our main findings suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between innovativeness and corporate venturing activities, both in family and non-family firms. This relationship is much stronger for national than international corporate venturing. Moreover, high family ownership and influence negatively affect only the innovativeness-national venturing relationship, while this negative effect is less manifest for the case of international venturing.

Keywords: innovativeness; corporate entrepreneurship; family business; entrepreneurial venturing; international corporate venturing; national corporate venturing; family influence; socioemotional wealth; PLS-SEM; family ownership; family firms; structural equation modelling; SEM; partial least squares; PLS; corporate ventures.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2016.078789

European Journal of International Management, 2016 Vol.10 No.5, pp.505 - 533

Received: 17 May 2015
Accepted: 09 Feb 2016

Published online: 02 Sep 2016 *

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