Dr. Jorge A. Durán-Encalada, Family Business Research Centre – Universidad de las Américas Puebla, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Juan M. San Martin-Reyna, Family Business Research Centre – Universidad de las Américas Puebla, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Héctor Montel-Campos, Family Business Research Centre – Universidad de las Américas Puebla, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

This paper builds on existing theoretical and empirical studies in the areas of family business and entrepreneurship. It uses Dubin´s theory building framework to propose a model for conducting research of family businesses and its linkage to entrepreneurial activities in Mexico. This work starts by describing the concepts of family business and explains the importance that these definitions can have on the variables to be included in the research. After that, the paper explains how the concept of “familiness” relates to the essence definition of family business. Using the resource-based view (RBV), agency theory, and social capital theories we describe how social capital resources are the basis for building firm capabilities and competitive advantages that influence firm’s performances. Based on this perspective, a theoretical model, laws of interaction, a set of propositions and suggestions for further research are provided.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, family business, familiness, business performance.