Entrepreneurial Orientation of Family Business

Abstract

Family businesses are considered as an important source of economic development and growth in that they create added value by providing new products, processes and technologies. Family businesses, where family values and perspectives dominate, have begun to experience problems in adapting to such a structure in the global economy, where the rate of change has increased, and the competition is intense. In the process of restructuring, entrepreneurial orientation is vital for these businesses. From this point of view, the aim of this chapter is to define family business, to explain their characteristics and to show the two perspectives on the entrepreneurial orientation of family businesses. The concept of “family entrepreneurship” and “transgenerational entrepreneurship” is also mentioned in the chapter. In relation to what is told in the chapter, how a conservative structure has been opened to the market by its third generation, a family business in Turkey that is going through its third generation and the innovations brought about by the new generation compose the case study.