The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective

doi:10.1016/S0883-9026(03)00011-9

Journal of Business Venturing

Volume 18, Issue 5, September 2003, Pages 573-596

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-9026(03)00011-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

Families and businesses have often been treated as naturally separate institutions, whereas we argue that they are inextricably intertwined. Long-term changes in family composition and in the roles and relations of family members have produced families in North America that are growing smaller and losing many of their previous role relationships. Such transformations in the institution of the family have implications for the emergence of new business opportunities, opportunity recognition, business start-up decisions, and the resource mobilization process. We suggest that entrepreneurship scholars would benefit from a family embeddedness perspective on new venture creation.

Section snippets

Executive summary

After decades of debate, scholars now agree that a crucial aspect of entrepreneurship involves the recognition of emerging business opportunities, which are often exploited through the creation of new business ventures. Although research on opportunity emergence and venture creation has grown considerably, very little attention has been paid to how family dynamics affect fundamental entrepreneurial processes. To some extent, this oversight is understandable. After all, business and families are

Research on opportunity and venture emergence: the neglect of family embeddedness

After years of vigorous debate, a growing consensus holds that entrepreneurship can be defined as the process by which people discover and exploit new business opportunities, often through the creation of new business ventures Davidsson and Wiklund, 2001, Shane and Venkataraman, 2000, Timmons, 1999. As noted by Davidsson et al. (2001), for example, the field has converged around the view that entrepreneurship is about emergence, albeit with some scholars emphasizing the emergence of

Sociohistorical changes in the family system: implications for opportunity and venture emergence

In the mid-20th century, “family” usually meant a nuclear two-generational group with parents and children sharing the same household. Few women worked outside the home, children were in school, and, if they worked, contributed their wages to the family purse. Strong ties bound multiple generations together, and limited geographic mobility kept many extended kinship groups in the same or nearby communities. In North America at the beginning of the 21st century, almost everything has changed.

Toward a family embeddedness perspective: implications for entrepreneurship and family business research

During the past two decades, the notion that entrepreneurs are embedded in social relationships has become almost axiomatic in the entrepreneurship literature Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986, Burt, 1992, Larson and Starr, 1993. Rather ironically, however, the embeddedness approach has virtually neglected the one social institution in which all entrepreneurs are embedded—the family. This gap persists in spite of evidence that: family transitions can trigger organizational emergence (Cramton, 1993),

Conclusion

We need more research on how family systems affect opportunity emergence and recognition, the new venture creation decision, and the resource mobilization process. We need to learn more about the role that family characteristics and dynamics play in why, when, and how some people, but not others, identify entrepreneurial opportunities and decide to start business enterprises. In turn, we need to better understand the effects that venture creation can have on family systems. Such research

Acknowledgements

We thank Glen Elder, Guang Guo, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Kathie Mullan Harris, Maria Haydey, Devereaux Jennings, Linda Renzulli, Ron Rindfuss, Lloyd Steier, and Peter Uhlenberg for their help. The Guest Co-Editors of this Special Issue were especially generous with their time in helping us improve earlier drafts. We are grateful for the financial support provided by the University of Alberta's Centre for Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise as well as the Entrepreneurship and Small Business

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The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective

Abstract

Section snippets

Executive summary

Research on opportunity and venture emergence: the neglect of family embeddedness

Sociohistorical changes in the family system: implications for opportunity and venture emergence

Toward a family embeddedness perspective: implications for entrepreneurship and family business research

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

J. Bus. Venturing

J. Bus. Venturing

J. Bus. Venturing

J. Bus. Venturing

J. Bus. Venturing

Management fashion

Acad. Manage. Rev.

New realities of the American family

Popul. Bull.

Organizations Evolving

Human resource management and organizational life cycles

From traits to rates: an ecological perspective on organizational foundings

Entrepreneurship through social networks

Passing on privilege: resources provided by self-employed parents to their self-employed children

Maternal employment and time with children: dramatic change or surprising continuity?

Demography

American families

Popul. Bull.

Research on women business owners: past trends, a new perspective and future directions

Entrep. Theory Pract.

From initial idea to unique advantage: the entrepreneurial challenge of constructing a resource base

Acad. Manage. Exec.

Gender, Family, and Job Characteristics: Determinants of Self-Employment Participation for a Young Cohort, 1979–1998

What's happening to the family? Interactions between demographic and institutional change

Demography

Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition

Reducing Barriers Between Genders: Differences in New Firm Startups

The influence of national culture and family involvement on entrepreneurial perceptions and performance at the state level

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Spotlight on national food spending

Food Rev.

Replacing housework in the service economy: gender, class, and race–ethnicity in service spending

Gend. Soc.

Reinvestigating remarriage: another decade of progress

J. Marriage Fam.

Research on household labor: modeling and measuring the social embeddedness of routine family work

J. Marriage Fam.

Is rugged individualism the whole story? Public and private accounts of a firm's founding

Fam. Bus. Rev.

Levels of analysis in entrepreneurship research: current research practice and suggestions for the future

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Editor's introduction: low and MacMillan ten years on: achievements and future directions for entrepreneurship research

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Infantile inventions

Entrep. Mag.

Where do new organizational forms come from? Management logics as a source of coevolution

Organ. Sci.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles

Good dads–bad dads: two faces of fatherhood

Divorce and the America family

Parenting apart: patterns of childrearing after marital disruption

J. Marriage Fam.

“Who is an entrepreneur?” is the wrong question

Am. J. Small Bus.

Is there an elephant in entrepreneurship? Blind assumptions in theory development

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Child Care Expenses of America's Families

New Families, No Families?

Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy