Family ownership and internationalization of family firms: An S-curve hypothesis

Despite the proliferation of scholarship on family firms the relationship between family ownership and internationalization is far from clear. Drawing on the mixed gamble logic and restricted versus extended socioemotional wealth (SEW) priority of family firms we propose an S-curve relationship. We hypothesize that internationalization decreases at a low level of family ownership, increases at a moderate level of family ownership, and decreases again at a high level of family ownership. This S-shaped relationship is the outcome of family owners’ assessment of different gains and losses associated with internationalization (mixed gamble) and their subsequent decision to support or oppose internationalization. Our analyses of 200 Indian firms from 2006 to 2020 time-period support our predictions and demonstrate that the inflection points in the S-curve appear at family ownership levels of 52% and 76%.