Innovation and Appropriation in the Argentine Family Business

Abstract

Family businesses fulfil a fundamental role in the economy as they constitute a vast majority of companies in different countries and sectors and make an important contribution to employment, production and generating value. Nevertheless, they occupy a small space in the business and corporate literature, which generally studies the behaviour of companies without considering this feature. This is even more so in the literature on innovation, although family businesses also make a relevant contribution to the economy through productive, organisational and commercial innovations. This article intends to fill this gap in the Argentine case, analysing the innovative behaviour of these firms and, fundamentally, their appropriability strategies. To do so, empirical evidence is used from the most recent Argentine innovation survey (ENDEI II) which has data on 3,944 companies, of which 2,954 are family businesses. To analyse the link between the family nature of the businesses, their innovation activities and their appropriability strategies, the concept of familiness is resorted to, which alludes to those idiosyncratic elements that arise from the interaction of the family members and their participation in the business, imbuing it with its distinctive character.