Internationalisation of family and non-family firms: a conjoint experiment among CEOs
by Helge Mensching; Andrea Calabrò; Felix Eggers; Sascha Kraus
European J. of International Management (EJIM), Vol. 10, No. 5, 2016

Abstract: The aim of this article is to shed light on the individual decision-making process of decision-makers in family and non-family firms in internationalisation activities, which depends on the intertwining of both economic and socioemotional reference points. Our analysis with the help of a choice-based conjoint analysis suggests that the perception of risk and success differs among three types of CEOs: family CEOs, non-family CEOs, and CEOs from non-family firms. We identify significant differences regarding indicators that pertain to geographic, psychological, and cultural distance. CEOs in non-family firms are not sensitive to geographic distance and perceive internationalisation to more distant countries as having the least amount of risk compared to the other CEO types. For family CEOs, psychological distances in language and religion negatively influence internationalisation decisions because these distances are perceived as more risky. For choosing the most successful strategies, reactions to psychological distance are not significantly different among the management types, while reactions to cultural differences are negligible.

Online publication date: Fri, 02-Sep-2016

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the European J. of International Management (EJIM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com