Internationalization of family SMEs: the impact of ownership, governance, and top management team

Family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalize their business after consolidating their position in their domestic market. Once family SMEs have built up the necessary resources and capabilities for their growth in the domestic market, they may leverage it later on for further expansion abroad. This paper seeks to examine the determinant factors that may explain the internationalization of family SMEs. More specifically, this study will examine the relationship between ownership, governance, top management team (TMT) and internationalization in family SMEs. Family SMEs may reap the benefit of stewardship orientation. This study seeks to examine the potential moderating role of stewardship orientation and TMT behavioral integration. The main contribution of this study is in examining theoretically and conceptually the relationship between ownership, governance, TMT and internationalization in the family SME context.