Ravi Sarathy

Resource Configuration in Family Firms: Linking Resources, Strategic Planning and Technological Opportunities to Performance

We apply the resource-based view of the firm to the study of family firms by investigating how a family specific resource (reciprocal altruism) and a firm specific resource (innovative capacity) contribute to family firm performance. We then examine how the impact of these resources is moderated by strategic planning and technological opportunities. Our findings suggest that family firms can benefit from emphasizing the positive aspects of kinship and from developing innovative capacities. As such, we demonstrate that not only do firm specific resources contribute to family firm performance, but also that family relationships can be a source of competitive advantage for a family firm. In addition, we found a heightened importance of reciprocal altruism in environments rich in technological opportunities, and that strategic planning is more important for those family firms that lack innovative capacities.

Strategic and Ethical Considerations in Managing Digital Privacy

Individualized customer information is at the heart of on-line commerce. Using increasing amounts of customer-specific data enhances the success and value of one-to-one on-line marketing; but the extensive gathering and use of data specific to individuals also causes alarm over the loss of digital privacy, setting up a confrontation between e-commerce and society. Governments and nations, particularly in Europe, have reacted with a reliance on sweeping laws governing digital privacy protection while other nations such as the U.S. have generally preferred to allow companies and industry associations to regulate themselves. This tenuous balance is under attack from both sides. In this paper, we set up a framework which incorporates the environmental context, ethical perspectives and firm-specific considerations to help firms develop a strategy for handling digital privacy concerns.

Liability of Foreignness and Internationalisation of Emerging Market Firms

Liability of foreignness (LOF) is a well known concept in international business domain. At the core of LOF is the insight that firms face social and economic costs when they operate in foreign markets. Extant literature acknowledges that the ability of firms to overcome LOF in host locations vary, however, it does not discuss the possibility that the LOF itself could vary for different firms at the same location. We extend this literature by examining how a firm’s interaction with the host and home country environments affect the LOF that it faces in foreign markets? We argue that there are two sources of LOF – environmentally-derived LOF and firm-based LOF. The environmentally-derived LOF has its source in home and host country environments. Firm-based LOF, on the other hand, derives from firm-specific characteristics including ownership structure, firm-specific resources, learning, and network based linkages such as affiliation to a business group. Furthermore, we argue that both the environmentally-derived and firm-based LOF are different for emerging market firms as compared to developed market firms. We develop testable propositions about how environment-specific and firm-specific factors affect LOF and suggest directions for future research.

The international marketing strategies of New England high-technology firms

This paper examines the relationship between international marketing strategy, foreign sales performance and overall corporate performance for a small sample of 39 New England high technology firms. The results show that existence of an international marketing commitment is beneficial to overall corporate performance; however, no incremental contribution to corporate performance is evident from the use of foreign manufacturing operations over foreign sales subsidiaries.

Introduction: a framework for studying the ‘double embeddedness’ of business enterprising

Over a decade ago, Aldrich and Cliff (2003) called for a ‘family embeddedness’ perspective on entrepreneurship research, urging scholars to consider how familyrelated factors impact—and are impacted by—venture creation processes and outcomes (see also Rogoff and Heck, 2003). As noted by Sharma, Melin, and Nordqvist (2014), the reciprocal influence of family and business has been of even longerstanding interest within the family enterprise literature, arguably constituting the field’s distinctive focus. While research in both areas has progressed rapidly, knowledge of the myriad ways in which the families and firms of ownermanagers affect one another is far from complete. In the entrepreneurship literature, empirical studies consistent with the family embeddedness perspective remain relatively rare (for examples see Eddleston and Powell, 2012; Gras and Nason, forthcoming; Powell and Eddleston, 2013; Zellweger, Sieger, and Halter, 2011). And even in recent reviews of the family business literature, the need for greater attention to family variables is a dominant refrain (Danes, 2014; James, Jennings, and Breitkreuz, 2012; McKenney, Payne, Zachary, and Short, 2014; Yu, Lumpkin, Sorenson, and Brigham, 2012). Paralleling the call for increased consideration of familyrelated factors is that for an enhanced appreciation of the broader economic, institutional and cultural environments in which business enterprises are also embedded. Within the entrepreneurship literature, the latter appeal is a salient if not primary theme cutting across numerous essays (for example, Ucbasaran, Westhead, and Wright, 2001; Welter, 2011; Zahra and Wright, 2011; Zahra, Wright, and Abdelgawad, 2014) and special issues of academic journals (for example, Bruton, Ahlstrom, and Obloj, 2008; Jennings, Greenwood, Lounsbury, and Suddaby, 2013; Krueger, Liñán, and Nabi, 2013). It is also a key raison d’être of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) initiative. Within the family business literature, the need