Family-centered goals, geographic focus and family firms’ internationalization: a study on export performance

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to investigate whether family-centred goals impact on family firms’ export performance and to determine the extent to which the geographic focus (regional versus global) of the firm’s strategy changes this relationship. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of 195 medium to large family firms. The main findings show that, while family-centred non-economic (FCNE) goals negatively impact on export performance, family-centred economic (FCE) goals have a positive influence. Moreover, empirical evidence suggests that both effects are stronger when firms adopt an international strategy with a global, rather than regional, focus. We therefore suggest that a global strategy is detrimental for those family firms strongly prioritizing FCNE goals yet beneficial for those strongly prioritizing FCE goals. Overall, our study theoretically and empirically shows that the actual emphasis that family firm owners place on family-centred goals may either facilitate or inhibit their international sales and that this influence is moderated by the geographic focus of their international activities. In so doing, our study improves our knowledge of why some family firms are more successful than others in their international endeavours.