Research on family firms’ internationalization\ud is growing, but empirical findings are mixed.\ud To reconcile prior studies, we focus on strategic\ud decisions related to internationalization, specifically\ud the foreign market entry mode selection process. We\ud suggest that the choice about entry mode is especially\ud significant for family owners because it may either\ud align or conflict with two key family-related goals:\ud maintaining family control and keeping a long-term\ud orientation of the business. We argue that these goals\ud have different weights within family firms according\ud to differences in ownership structure, with significant\ud implications for international strategic decisions. We\ud rely on a sample of medium-sized family-owned\ud Italian firms and show that different types of family\ud ownership structures affect entry mode decisions\ud differently and specifically influence the time horizon\ud of the foreign investment and willingness to cooperate\ud with external actors. We also provide empirical\ud evidence that the presence of a non-family manager\ud moderates the relationship between family ownership\ud and entry mode decisions. Our study expands on prior\ud research by highlighting how family firms enter\ud foreign markets and pointing out the strategic implications\ud of family firm heterogeneit

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Based on the socioemotional wealth approach and a sample of 3,904 subsidiary ownership choices made by 586 family firms, this study shows that family-managed firms (i.e., those family firms with a family member in a leadership position) prefer wholly owned subsidies over joint ventures when entering foreign markets. Family-managed firms are also more likely to revise their subsidiary ownership choices and form joint ventures when in vulnerability conditions, that is, when they experience performance below aspirations and when entering a culturally distant market.