Prevailing deficit logic suggests that women entrepreneurs underperform in innovation due to resource disadvantages; yet, growing evidence shows that gender does not consistently exert a statistically significant effect. We address this puzzle through a contextual-configurational approach, examining how entrepreneurs not only do gender but also do context in achieving a high innovation outcome. Using qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of high-tech new ventures in China, we identify three distinct innovation archetypes and make several key contributions. Thus, by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives, we develop a contextualised understanding of innovation in high-tech new ventures shaped by the interplay between gender, intangible resources and environmental dynamism. In addition, we reveal that the conjunction of women, gender and resource disadvantage can, under conditions of environmental turbulence, foster high levels of innovation, and finally, we reconcile the ongoing debate regarding the role of gender in innovation, offering a more holistic understanding of gender differences in entrepreneurship.

PurposeA firm's entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is critical for its survival and long-term success. However, there is an ongoing debate about whether the unique characteristics of family firms promote or inhibit EO. Drawing on the resource-based view, this paper aims to contribute to this debate by examining the role of family commitment and the mediating effect of a firm's long-term orientation in shaping EO within family firms. By doing so, this study provides deeper insights into the dynamics that drive EO in family firms.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized national survey data from 985 family firms in China. To mitigate potential common method bias, a double-respondent questionnaire design was employed. Data on the independent variable (family commitment) and the dependent variable (entrepreneurial orientation) were answered by the family owner-managers, while the mediating variable, the firm's long-term orientation, was assessed by non-family financial managers. The theoretical model was tested using Preacher and Hayes's (2004) SPSS macros process model, with Baron and Kenny's (1986) method applied as a robustness check. Rigorous endogeneity tests were also conducted. Additionally, this study measured not only entrepreneurial orientation but also actual corporate entrepreneurial behavior.FindingsThe research shows that family commitment positively influences a firm's entrepreneurial orientation/behavior, with this effect being mediated by the firm's long-term orientation. These findings underscore the significance of family-specific resources in driving EO and highlight long-term orientation as a crucial mediating factor.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by highlighting the crucial role of family commitment in fostering entrepreneurial orientation/behavior. It theorizes that family commitment enhances entrepreneurial orientation/behavior through its influence on the firm's long-term orientation. This new perspective offers valuable insights into how family influence shapes EO, positioning long-term orientation as a fundamental mechanism in this relationship. Additionally, it extends our understanding of EO in family firms operating in emerging economies.

Non-family managers play a crucial role in fostering innovation within family firms, yet their impact remains debated due to inconsistent research findings and a lack of comprehensive synthesis. This study integrates this effect through a meta-analysis of 213 effect sizes from 101 studies. The results demonstrate a positive influence of non-family managers on firm innovation, with a stronger effect on inputs than on outputs. Furthermore, this study identifies key governance and managerial contingencies at the firm level. First-generation control weakens this relationship, while non-family TMTs strengthen it. The implications for theory and practice are discussed, with suggestions for future research.

Parental mentoring plays a pivotal role in fostering intrafamily succession and entrepreneurial endeavors. Taking an identity-based perspective, we conducted an exploratory multiple case study involving nine Chinese family firms to investigate how successors perceive the influence of mentoring from their entrepreneurial parents on the development of their entrepreneurial identities. Our findings reveal that successors' entrepreneurial identity changes from ambiguous to clarified through four perceived parental mentoring strategies, namely laying foundations, painting bright futures, relating experiences, and leading by examples. In particular, we show how the unique Chinese family dynamics resulted in some paradoxical tensions influencing the successors' entrepreneurial identity. By taking a holistic view, we conceptualize parental mentoring as a crucial nurturing strategy for successors and connect it to the process of successor identity transformation. This research sheds light on the nexus of entrepreneurial identity, family dynamics, and the Chinese cultural context within the realm of family business research and practice.

This paper theorizes how the parent-child relationship influences a child’s intentions for internal succession versus external entrepreneurship. Drawing on insights from family science literature, we examine the emotional and cognitive dimensions of this relationship and their impact on a child’s intentions. We propose that the impact of the parent-child relationship on a child’s intention will vary based on the child’s gender and self-competence. We further delineate that the effects of the child’s gender and self-competence will be moderated by different cultural contexts, including “son preference” and coparcenary cultures. By doing so, this study enhances our understanding of the critical roles that parents and cultural contexts play in shaping children’s attitudes toward internal succession and external entrepreneurship, while also highlighting the unique ways through which familial relationships influence a child’s choice in sustaining family firms and preserving an entrepreneurial mindset across generations.

Prior research generate conflicting findings regarding the relationship between family influence and corporate entrepreneurship. This study reconciles these inconsistent findings and argues that family commitment—the essence of family influence —plays an instrumental role in corporate entrepreneurship. From the dominant coalition perspective, we theorize that family commitment facilitates corporate entrepreneurship by enhancing the firm’s long-term orientation (LTO). An empirical analysis of 956 family firms from China supports our hypotheses. This study provides new insights into the relationship between family influence and corporate entrepreneurship and highlights the LTO as the underlying mechanism of family influence.

This paper examines the influence of family management on corporate charitable donations. Drawing from the literature on socioemotional wealth, we propose that the level of family management and corporate charitable donations presents an inverted U-shaped relationship, and that this inverted U-shaped relationship is weakened by firm diversification levels and an unfair competition environment. An analysis of a comprehensive data set comprising 9266 firm-year observations, encompassing 1445 publicly listed Chinese family firms from 2010 to 2021, provides empirical support for our hypotheses. The results remain robust when accounting for endogeneity concerns. This study contributes to the growing body of research on environmental, social, and governance in the field of finance and accounting, and enhances our knowledge of sustainability practices in family firms.

Organizational ambidexterity is considered an essential strategy for firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantages, but it is unreasonable to expect all firms to equally profit from pursuing organizational ambidexterity, as this is a resource-intensive strategy. Using the resource-based view, we proposed and tested two internal boundary conditions that shape the impact of organizational ambidexterity on firm performance: family management and formalization. The results of our three-way interaction analysis of data from 324 Chinese SMEs show that a higher level of family management weakens the positive impact of organizational ambidexterity on firm performance, and this negative moderating effect is further strengthened by the degree of a firm's formalization. These findings help us better understand why resource-constrained firms are more likely to struggle when pursuing organizational ambidexterity.

基于儒家文化传统中推己及人的逐层外推逻辑,企业家的家族和谐通过家族成员对企业的参与塑造组织文化,进而影响企业创新的两条路径.研究发现,家族和谐对家族企业创新具有显著的正向影响,顾客关爱和礼制规范对这对关系具有部分中介效应.将组织文化嵌入特定的儒家文化传统中进行刻画和分析,不仅深化了我们对组织文化影响企业创新的底层逻辑的理解,也为理解文化传统影响国家或区域创新的微观基础提供了新的思路和证据.同时,对家族系统中关系和谐维度的考量,也是对家族企业战略与行为研究中重所有权和管理权等量化权利与权力维度、轻关系和谐等质量维度局限性的一种弥补.

团队的良好运作是组织有效运行的重要基础.近10年来,关于团队的研究正由关注个体转向关注整体发展,团队断裂带成为其中的一个重要研究议题和新趋势.本文对国内外相关研究文献进行了系统检索和归类分析,对团队断裂带研究的缘起与演变过程做出重新梳理,将两类不同断裂带的内涵边界做出明确区隔,并通过对比断裂带与多样性和异质性等紧密相关概念的异同,提出断裂带研究的新维度.在此基础上,对社会分类理论与社会网络理论两个不同视角下的团队断裂带研究焦点及其解释逻辑进行了整理和对比分析,并着重从社会分类和信息加工视角归纳了断裂带对团队和组织两个不同层次行为和绩效的影响.最后,本文分别从断裂带的构成维度、测量方法、分析视角和研究情境四个方面总结了现有研究的不足,并提出了未来具有潜力的研究方向.

Apart from the recognized under-representation of female entrepreneurs, whether the gender of entrepreneur matters and how does it matter to new venture’s innovativeness remain an under-research area. This study challenges the gender bias on low innovativeness of female-owned enterprises especially in the high-tech sector by applying a Qualitative Comparative Analysis approach to a sample of 62 new venture high-tech firms in China. Built upon the resource dependence theory (RDT) and the gender differences in innovation literature, this research holistically articulates alternative mechanisms from multiple antecedents including the gender of entrepreneur, managerial resources, and environment leading to high innovativeness. Our findings unveil that an extremely turbulent environment can suppress the influence of gender, whereas, in other circumstances, female-owned firms even engage more intensively in innovation. In doing so, this paper develops a mid-range theory by the means of three archetypes of high innovativeness to explain when and when not gender matters to innovation. It also extends the explanatory power of the RDT to explain the gender disparities by suggesting how male and female entrepreneurs differ in leveraging their resources in response to the external environment and ultimately influence innovativeness. The findings provide some practical implications for entrepreneurial firms to be highly innovative under different environmental and resource conditions.

Using a sample of 409 Chinese family businesses, we replicate and extend an influential study undertaken by Chrisman et al. (2012). Consistent with Chrisman et al. (2012), we confirm the bridging position of family essence in transforming family influence into family-centered non-economic goals in business. We also found that the theoretical model of Chrisman et al. (2012) can be used to explain the prevalence and magnitude of family-centered economic goals in Chinese family firms. In addition, we explore the impact of external regional differences and internal firm conditions in affecting the causal relationships among family involvement, family essence, and family-centered goals.

Although the family business research field and related disciplines are paying increasing attention to improvements in methodology, there is still insufficient attention being paid to endogeneity issues. We therefore raise awareness of endogeneity and suggest ways to reduce biased results in family business studies. We review publications in the family business literature in terms of (1) the consideration of endogeneity issues, (2) sources of endogeneity for different research topics, and (3) various methods that researchers have used to control for endogeneity. We discuss important lessons learned from the review and offer methodologically oriented recommendations for future family business studies.

家族所有权(权力涉入)和企业长期导向(意愿涉入)构成了家族企业的本质内涵,对这两个维度同公司创业的关系,学界一直存在争议.为缓解这一理论争议,本文基于2015年全国范围私营企业大样本调查数据,从代理理论特别是激励和监督视角研究了海归继承人涉入对上述关系的调节效应.实证结果表明,海归继承人涉入促进了家族所有权与公司创业之间的关系,抑制了企业长期导向与公司创业之间的关系.更换自变量的测量方案后,研究结论依然稳健.通过引入普通代际涉入替换海归继承人作为调节变量发现,前者不能影响上述两个自变量对公司创业的影响;通过路径作用分析发现,海归继承人任职层级越高,海归继承人促进家族所有权与公司创业之间的关系越显著.本文的研究结论对家族企业公司创业、代际涉入及海归创业具有重要理论贡献,提出了海归继承人涉入下家族企业实施公司创业的管理启示.