The phenomenon of portfolio entrepreneurship has attracted considerable scholarly attention and is particularly relevant in the family firm context. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the process through which portfolio entrepreneurship develops in family firms. We address this gap by analyzing four in‐depth, longitudinal family firm case studies from Europe and Latin America. Using a resource‐based perspective, we identify six distinct resource categories that are relevant to the portfolio entrepreneurship process. Furthermore, we reveal that their importance varies across time. Our resulting resource‐based process model of portfolio entrepreneurship in family firms makes valuable contributions to both theory and practice. Copyright © 2011 Strategic Management Society.

Drawing on the transgenerational entrepreneurship perspective, we employ a multiple case study approach to investigate why multigenerational family firms innovate. The data collection process drew upon five in-depth cases comprising 42 semistructured interviews, 25 participant observations, and several thousand pages of historical data dating from 1916 to 2017. We find patterns on how the firms’ long-term view—embracing both the past and the future—influences the innovation motives of these firms. Specifically, we identify three innovation patterns: conserving, persisting and legacy-building. We introduce a set of propositions and a framework linking long-term orientation dimensions to innovation motives and innovation outcomes. Our research thus contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of innovation behavior in family firms.

Despite increased academic attention paid to migration flows in Europe, the gendered nature of transnational migrant entrepreneurial journeys within the context of a family business remains under‐researched. We address this gap by investigating how transnational spaces allow women to challenge dominant ideas about their roles, and to claim legitimacy by opening branches of their family business abroad. With extensive longitudinal evidence collected over a seven‐year period, we showcase four biographical narratives of women operating transnational family businesses in the UK that had originated in Eastern Europe. Adopting this novel longitudinal approach, we provide insights into how these transnational migrant women entrepreneurs exercise individual agency to overcome structural constraints by developing strategies that prioritize their own business aspirations without fully sacrificing their family ties.

This article analyzes retrenchment strategies that family businesses adopt during periods of crisis. From a socioemotional wealth perspective, we propose that the influence of family board members and family CEOs on retrenchment depends on survival risk. We collected empirical data from companies on the Spanish Stock Exchange (2008-2012). Our findings reveal that family involvement intensifies retrenchment when performance is declining, and that retrenchment intensifies when survival is at risk. We also demonstrate that family firms are able to implement retrenchment measures when required to improve their performance.

This conceptual article seeks to address the heterogeneity of family firms in terms of their innovativeness by investigating business family communication dynamics. We use the established family communication constructs of conversation and conformity orientations to develop a typology of family firms in terms of innovativeness. We provide empirically testable propositions and present possible operationalizations for future research. In particular, we argue that supportive business families (i.e., families characterized by high conversation orientation and moderate conformity orientation) are associated with the highest levels of innovativeness in the family‐controlled firm. Through this article we hope to deepen our understanding of the relationship between family and firm levels of analysis, to develop a stronger bond between communication and innovative behavior, and to identify family‐related antecedents of heterogeneity in family firm innovativeness.