Intergenerational Entrepreneurship in Family Business: Conceptualising ways Entrepreneurial Family Businesses can be Sustained across Generations

Abstract

Family businesses are known to contribute significantly to economies around the world. With the option to harvest their businesses at any one point, there is a pressing need to promote the sustainability of family businesses, for economic and social prosperity. This study investigates how entrepreneurial family businesses can be sustained across generations, and speaks to the nexus of three significant bodies of literature -- family business, succession, and entrepreneurship. Three in‐depth case studies of medium‐sized intergenerational winegrowers in New Zealand, informed the basis of this qualitative study. An appreciative inquiry approach was influential in carrying out fieldwork. All family members involved in the business were interviewed, as were a sample of employees. Data were presented through illustrative within‐case findings and then distilled into themes. From the emergent themes, three theoretical dimensions were derived: knowledge sharing, entrepreneurial orientation, and resource capabilities. These dimensions, contingent on the influence a family has over their business (as assessed by the F‐PEC scale), were displayed as a theoretical model promoting sustainable entrepreneurial family businesses across generations. Beyond this theoretical model, each of the dimensions were explored individually, and developed further, in light of this thesis's primary research question: "In what ways can entrepreneurial family businesses be sustained across generations?". The purpose of presenting these extensions was to provide practical explanation, and potential tools that could be utilised in future academic research, and as practical explanatory aides for family businesses themselves. The main conclusion of this research is that entrepreneurial family businesses can be sustained across generations through the promotion of knowledge sharing, adopting an appropriate entrepreneurial orientation, and being explicitly aware of their resource capabilities. For a family business to be sustained across generations with the promotion of these dimensions, the importance of influence that the family has over the business was highlighted. This conclusion contributes to family business and entrepreneurship theory by linking family business and entrepreneurship through the succession process. In addition, the application of an appreciative inquiry offers a perspective that is often overlooked. In contrast to most studies in family business and entrepreneurship research, this study develops an understanding of what works well in family businesses that have successfully managed family continuity across generations, and engaged in entrepreneurial behaviour through the life cycle of the business.