Research

Research interests

I study the challenges of entrepreneurs in family businesses and otherwise privately-held smaller firms. 

I am interested in research questions at individual and firm level, and occasionally engage in multilevel work incorporating macro-contextual variation. I also have a keen interest in exploring new methodologies, and ways in which existing research practices can be improved.

Please reach out if you’d like to explore a research idea together!

Published work (reverse chronological order)

Negative capability and entrepreneurial action. Strategic Change, online first.

• Abstract: Entrepreneurs operate in environments marked by uncertainty. Existing theories of entrepreneurial action largely emphasize an entrepreneur’s ability to make judgments and take decisive action despite ongoing uncertainty—competencies primarily supported by what we term positive capability (PC). In contrast, this paper introduces negative capability (NC), a concept originating in the work of John Keats, describing the ability to remain in uncertainty without the immediate need for resolution. We conceptualize NC and PC as interdependent meta-capacities that co-regulate entrepreneurial competencies and shape how individuals internally and externally engage with uncertainty. Integrating these meta-capacities into Zellweger and Zenger’s model of the entrepreneur as scientist, we demonstrate how their dynamic interplay enables more deliberate and effective entrepreneurial action. The framework offers new insights into how entrepreneurs form, test, and update opportunity beliefs, and highlights the importance of cultivating NC alongside PC in aspiring entrepreneurs.  

Greening in the spotlight: How public inquisitiveness shapes European SMEs’ actions in response to climate concerns. Business Strategy and the Environment, 33(6), 2024, pp. 6106-6123.

With Yannick Bammens (Hasselt University).

• Abstract: We examine greening activities among European SMEs in the product and process domain, and argue that greater public climate concern in an SME’s home country environment primarily associates with greening in the inherently more visible product domain. Moreover, we introduce the concept of public inquisitiveness and propose that greater inquisitiveness prompts SMEs to also pay attention to less visible process greening activities as a response to public climate pressures. We test our ideas using multilevel regression models on a large representative sample of SMEs from 18 European Union countries. The study’s main ideas are supported by the findings, which point to possible trade-offs between product and process greening among resource-constrained SMEs, and suggest the general public’s inquisitiveness indeed plays a key role in preventing underinvestment in less outwardly visible greening strategies. We discuss our study’s implications for discourse on how and under which conditions normative institutional forces shape firm-level sustainable behavior, as well as for SMEs’ pro-environmental stakeholders.  

In with the old, out with the new! The more we keep pushing for theoretical novelty, the less informative entrepreneurship theory will become. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 24(4), 2023, pp. 215-218.

• Abstract: Field-wide editorial expectations for each entrepreneurship study to offer new and interesting theoretical insights or explanations discourage entrepreneurship scholars to conduct the type of research needed to secure a replicable, generalizable, and thereby useful knowledge base. I address the paradoxical – yet predictable – long-term consequences of the relentless push for theoretical novelty on the ultimate informativeness of entrepreneurship theory, and ask the entrepreneurship research community to consider our collective and individual responsibilities in improving the systematic empirical scrutiny to which we subject our field’s core assumptions.

When shooting for the stars becomes aiming for asterisks: P-hacking in family business research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2023, 47(2), pp. 304-243.

• Abstract: As a side-effect of increasing publication pressures, academics may be tempted to engage in p-hacking: a questionable research practice involving the iterative and incompletely-disclosed adjustment of data collection, analysis, and/or reporting, until nonsignificant results turn significant. Prior studies in entrepreneurship-related disciplines carry the implicit notion that p-hacking is predominantly an issue in top-tier journals, where incentives to do so may be highest. This study investigates p-hacking in the family business literature, a research field with roots in the broader entrepreneurship and small business literatures, and in which discourse increasingly takes place in both dedicated field journals and in the top-tier outlets in entrepreneurship and management. Analyses of p-values published in these field- and top-tier journals allow for a comparison of the prevalence and correlates of p-hacking at these different levels of prestige. The findings suggest that p-hacking is an issue of substantial—and statistically indistinguishable—magnitudes in both field- and top-tier journals. We further observe negative correlations of female authorship and employer prestige with p-hacking, where the latter is stronger in field versus top-tier journals. Implications of these findings, their limitations, and some suggestions going forward are discussed, with particular attention for the promise of preregistration and registered reports.

One finding is no finding: Toward a replication culture in family business research. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 13(4), 2022.

With Alfredo De Massis (Free University of Bolzano) and Franz Kellermanns (University of North Carolina)

• Abstract: Our goal is to foster the development of a healthy replication culture in family business research. Replication, which advances theory by confronting existing understanding with new evidence, is of paramount importance in creating a meaningful cumulative knowledge base. In the family business field, however, as in many other fields within the broader management literature, dedicated replications are largely absent. After a brief analysis of the likely causes and consequences of our collective avoidance of replication studies, we examine four types of replication of particular importance to the field and provide guidelines and recommendations for family business scholars interested in conducting such research. We invite journals and their editors to reflect on the role they can play in changing the incentive structures to conduct and submit useful replication studies and provide actionable suggestions for improvement. We illustrate contemporary examples of family business knowledge advancement through replication research.

When can families fill voids? Firms’ reliance on formal and informal institutions in R&D decisions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 45(2), 2021, pp. 291-318.

With Emanuela Rondi (University of Bergamo).

• Abstract: Firms are more prone to allocate their resources to research and development (R&D) when they are confident about their ability to appropriate the value created through these activities. In this regard, policymakers introduce formal intellectual property rights (IPR) institutions to create an innovation-friendly environment. Less formalized shared values and norms are however likely to affect the extent to which organizations depend on the strength of formal institutions in determining their R&D strategy. Embracing an institution-based perspective on firm-level strategic decision-making, we examine whether the degree to which a firm relies on strong formal IPR institutions in R&D decisions depends on the configuration of informal institutions in its environment, including family and societal culture. We test our hypotheses on a representative sample of privately-held European manufacturing firms and find that the family institution can play an “institutional void filling” role through involvement in ownership and management. This is particularly the case when the firm is embedded in a collectivist culture coherent with the family’s values and norms imbued in the business. Our study offers contributions to the institution-based view, innovation, and family business literatures.

Expansionary investment activities: Assessing equipment and buildings in productivity. In Parmeter, C. and Sickles, R. (ed.), Advances in Efficiency and Productivity Analysis, 2020, pp. 303-Cham (CH): Springer.

With Andrea Chegut (MIT) and Wilko Letterie (Maastricht University).

• Abstract: We study firm-level expansionary investment activities in both equipment and buildings—the so-called investment spikes. Our identification strategy decomposes firm investment spikes into three streams: a spike in equipment only, buildings only, or a simultaneous spike. Empirically, we find that the timing and size of investment in equipment and buildings are not independent. Firms conducting a simultaneous spike enhance firm scale more than in the case of a spike in equipment or buildings alone. Employment growth occurs when a firm builds structures. Investment in equipment affects the optimal input mix and high productivity in equipment and buildings provides investment timing signals. In low-tech sectors firm production growth depends on investment in buildings. In contrast, a necessary condition for firms in high-tech sectors to grow their production is investment in equipment.

Family business or business family? Organizational identity elasticity and strategic responses to industry disruption. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.jfbs.2020.100360.

With Emanuela Rondi (University of Bergamo), Carlotta Benedetti (University of Innsbruck) and Unai Arzubiaga (University of the Basque Country).

• Abstract: Organizational identity represents a characterizing aspect of family firms with the potential to drive their heterogeneity and decision making. While the intertwined relationship between organizational identity and strategy is increasingly receiving attention from scholars in general management, research in the family firm field has yet to tackle it. Building on the construct of organizational identity elasticity, we conceptually examine how heterogeneity of family firms’ organizational identities influences, and is affected by, strategic decisions. We ground our conceptual investigation in the ideal context of disruptive innovation, a technology shift that might eventually threaten the traditional solution of an incumbent family firm. Thus, our study contributes by unveiling the multifaceted and dynamic nature of organizational identity in relation to family firm strategy and develops a novel perspective on typologies in family firms by identifying the theoretical underpinnings of the distinction between family business and business family archetypes. In addition, we advance the emerging debate on family firms’ interaction with exogenous technological changes.

Energy performance and capital expenditures in manufacturing industries. Energy Efficiency, 12, 2019, pp. 2011-2038.

With Andrea Chegut (MIT) and Wilko Letterie (Maastricht University).         

• Abstract: Little is known about how firms change energy consumption over time. Yet, to meet global climate change targets, understanding how changes in firm investment impact environmental performance is important for policymakers and firms alike. To investigate the environmental performance of firms, we measure the energy consumption and efficiency of firms in the Netherlands’ manufacturing industries before and after large capital expenditures over the 2000 to 2008 period. Unique to this data set is that firm investment is decomposed into the following three streams: investment in buildings only, investment in equipment only, or a simultaneous investment in both buildings and equipment. We find that firms increase energy consumption when experiencing a simultaneous investment. However, after large capital expenditures, energy efficiency increases. Further decomposition by firm types suggests that the building capital investments of firms active in high-tech, energy-intensive, and low labor-intensive industries do not coincide with energy efficiency improvements while energy efficiency does increase with capital expenditures in equipment. From a policy perspective, it is important for regulators to understand firm investment and production processes, which help regulators understand when and where energy efficiency increases are feasible across firm types and expansionary production strategies. Firms, regulators, and other third parties may work together to develop an energy efficiency plan in line with investment strategies, including enhanced transparency by firms, energy efficiency subsidies, and R&D tax credits, for innovation. Targeted agreements may work to cooperatively improve energy performance.
   

Broad search, deep search, and the absorptive capacity performance of family and nonfamily firm R&D. Family Business Review, 31(3), 2018, pp. 295-317.

Family influence and R&D spending in Dutch manufacturing SMEs: The role of identity and socioemotional decision considerations. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 35(4), 2018, pp. 588-608.

With Yannick Bammens (Hasselt University).

Collaborative NPD: A mixed-method approach to partner selection in family and nonfamily SMEs. In Guclu, A. (ed.), Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, 2017.

With Anita Van Gils (Maastricht University) and Martin Carree (Maastricht University).

Open innovation: A literature review and recommendations for family business research. In Kellermanns, F. and Hoy, F. (ed.), Routledge Companion to Family Business, 2017, pp. 241-266. New York: Routledge.

With Anita Van Gils (Maastricht University), Yannick Bammens (Hasselt University) and Martin Carree (Maastricht University).

• Abstract: By exchanging core organizational resources with their environment and renewing social interactions within and outside the family, family firms are able to build and sustain competitive advantage over many generations (Arrègle et al. 2007; Salvato and Melin 2008). Nevertheless, how the relational resources and capabilities of family firms can facilitate their innovation performance has not received much attention in our field (De Massis, Frattini, and Lichtenthaler, 2013). In line with Duran et al. (2015) we believe that the opportunities residing within the networks of family firms may help explain why family businesses achieve similar or even higher innovation output compared to nonfamily firms, despite their structurally lower investments in innovation (Carney et al. 2015). We propose that valuable new insights can be obtained by applying concepts from the open innovation literature (e.g., Chesbrough 2003; Dahlander and Gann 2010) to the empirical context of family firms. As family ownership is more prevalent and more likely to affect goal setting and firm behavior among smaller, mostly private businesses than in large public corporations (Carney et al. 2015), a thorough review of open innovation in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (hereafter SMEs) is executed. Supplemented with the knowledge so far developed by the few family firm specific open innovation studies, this review should provide a solid base for future research on open innovation in family firms.