The Entrepreneurial Origins of Family Business

Abstract

This chapter begins by presenting various interpretations of what entrepreneurship is, and what/who an entrepreneur is. It then focuses on the contribution of the first generation to multigenerational family business. How the first generation came to be in the position of establishing a family business, and how they initiated an entrepreneurial action out of nothing is fundamental for the following generations and the family firm. This generation is considered to be the founding entrepreneurial generation, the genetic matrix that sets the culture for subsequent generations. The first generation in this book are considered to be the entrepreneurs in two different ways, first because the process of change, activated by their decision to migrate, represents a form of entrepreneurial effort to create something new in personal terms, and second because they created something new in economic terms. The important dimension of personal entrepreneurship in this book is perceived as an outcome of the process of migration, of transitioning from the old to the new, breaking out of the old life, into a new life, with new emerging opportunities and conditions, relying on the individuals’ personal resources. This chapter identifies the personal resources that migrants make use of in a new condition, that may lead to innovative activity and the creation of a new enterprise, such as a family business.