Venturing Motives and Venturing Types in Entrepreneurial Families: A Corporate Entrepreneurship Perspective

Abstract

Current research suggests that entrepreneurship in the family business context is mainly induced by top-down firm-level activity. We propose that entrepreneurial activity is also initiated autonomously as a bottom-up process by individual members or a group of individual members of an entrepreneurial family (EF). Building on 63 interviews with EF members involved in 39 venturing cases, we reveal a set of unique motives driving the venturing activity and show how these motives are intertwined with six heterogeneous family venture types. We also emphasize how positioning (i.e., inside or outside of family firms’ boundaries), family support, emotional attachment, and transgenerational intention vary among the different venture types.