Born into opportunity, but not freedom: the inherited opportunity paradox in NextGen entrepreneurship

Purpose This paper addresses a neglected puzzle: next-generation members of business families (NextGens) may inherit resources for entrepreneurship while lacking psychological freedom to determine what those resources should become. It asks how family-derived business endowment can expand entrepreneurial capacity while constraining authorship of an entrepreneurial future. Design/methodology/approach A problem-centered conceptual approach integrates family-business resource, embeddedness and governance research with paradox theory, career self-authorship, and self-determination theory. Construct differentiation and mechanism-based reasoning generate conditional propositions linking family-derived resources, entrepreneurial opportunity, prescriptions, self-authorship, motivation and outcomes. Findings The model proposes that deployable family resources broaden entrepreneurial alternatives, while resource reliance strengthens prescriptions, particularly under salient family origin and conditional access. Prescriptions constrain career self-authorship when deviation carries credible sanctions. Self-authorship shapes motivational regulation, with distinct, conditional implications for passion, well-being, identity strain and entrepreneurial action. Perceived autonomy-supportive family governance weakens the constraining relationship. Research limitations/implications Longitudinal research should test construct distinctiveness, conditional relationships and reciprocal effects across career episodes. Multilevel extensions could examine family arrangements as antecedents of individual governance perceptions. Practical implications Business families, advisors and educators should combine transparent resource-allocation criteria with meaningful NextGen participation and opportunities to negotiate entrepreneurial pathways. Originality/value The paper explains how broad entrepreneurial opportunity can coexist with restricted career self-authorship. It distinguishes resource access from control and career authorization from motivational regulation, specifying conditions under which inherited advantage enables action while constraining its authorship.