title: 

When a globalniche strategy is not enough to spur family firm internationalization: the roleof external and internal contexts. 

Abstract

We integrate the mixed gamble perspective with thedynamic institution-based view to investigate how the speed of institutionalreforms and reversals in transition economies affects family versus nonfamilyfirms’ scale of internationalization over time. While research has focused onfamily firms’ reluctance to pursue strategic mixed gambles that endanger theirsocio-emotional wealth, we extend the analysis to explore how the institutionalenvironment leads to growth or withdrawal from internationalization once theyhave taken the gamble to venture abroad. Additionally, while researchdemonstrates that performance aspirations alter the mixed gamble, we proposethat the domestic speed of pro-market reforms and reversals will modify howperformance aspirations affect family versus nonfamily firms’ scale ofinternationalization over time. We validate our framework on 482 Chinese firms during 2004-2009.