Research Summary: We investigate whether and how family ownership and management influence firms' internationalization strategies in an emerging economy in which family firms are dominant. Anchoring on the willingness and ability framework and drawing on the socioemotional wealth perspective and agency theory, we theorize how the heterogeneity among family firms in their ownership structures, concentration, and family involvement in management shapes the firms' internationalization strategies. We also theorize how certain contingencies, such as the presence of foreign institutional ownership and family management, moderate the relationship between family ownership and internationalization strategy. We test our predictions by using a proprietary, longitudinal panel dataset of 303 leading family firms from India and find support for most of our theoretical predictions. Managerial Summary: Internationalization has emerged as a dominant strategy for firms in a globally interconnected world. We observe that ownership structure and management have significant bearing on internationalization strategies of family firms, as family owners and managers are more averse to internationalization. Family firms' aversion to internationalize is more pronounced when families can exercise greater control on firms' actions through the combined effect of higher family ownership (primarily through strategic control) and family's participation in management (through strategic, administrative, and operational control). However, certain contingencies, such as the higher ownership of foreign institutions and presence of professional managers, help business families improve their understanding of international markets, reduce the fear of the unknown, and better appreciate the benefits of internationalization, thereby aiding greater internationalization of family firms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the impact of family ownership on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of firms in an emerging market and the contingencies under which it is likely to be affected. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopted a panel data multiple regression using ordinary least square methodology on a sample of 51,972 observations belonging to 12,250 firms from India. Findings The study finds that family businesses have higher EO than non-family firms. However, it is likely to be affected during institutional transition due to environmental uncertainty. Furthermore, during institutional transition, there will be differences in the EO of family business groups and stand-alone family firms due to the former’s ubiquitous network-level resource advantages. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to the literature on family business by reconciling the positive and negative views on the effect of family ownership on EO by arguing that the risk-taking behavior of family firms is contingent on the environmental conditions and the resource position of the firm. Practical implications This study will enable managers and other stakeholders to predict the entrepreneurial attitude of family-owned firms during environmentally stable as well as turbulent times. Social implications This study highlights the implication of institutional transition through reforms on a vital part of the economy. Policy makers have to be sensitive to repercussions on family business due to environmental turbulence. Originality/value This is one of the first papers that investigate the influence of institutional transition and the resource position of Indian family firms on their EO.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play an important role in an emerging economy, given that they are often the biggest employer as well as the largest contributor to the economy. In the past, privatization has been used as an important governance mechanism to reduce the inefficiency of SOEs. Notwithstanding all the benefits of privatization, it is not always a feasible option due to political and legal compulsions. This article investigates the impact of an important alternate reform programme, namely, partial disinvestment on the performance of SOEs and the major contingencies under which this relationship is likely to be affected. The study undertook multiple quadratic regressions, on an unbalanced panel data from 2001 to 2014 on a sample of 4774 observations belonging to 562 Indian SOEs. The results suggest that with initial disinvestment there is an initial improvement in performance, but with subsequent disinvestments, the SOE performance is seen to decline. The results indicate that, even without full privatization, moderate corporate governance reform is potentially an effective way of improving the performance of SOEs; such reforms represent an alternative for policymakers seeking to restructure SOEs without massive privatization. The study also finds that this variation in performance with state disinvestment efforts is contingent on the institutional holding in the firm and the competitive environment. Theoretical contributions to the emerging SOE literature and practical implications for the SOE managers are also discussed.

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