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2018 (English)In: Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, ISSN 1042-2587, E-ISSN 1540-6520Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]
This study examines family firms’ propensity to protect their intellectual property through patents. Building on the mixed gamble logic of the behavioral agency model, we theorize that family ownership has a U-shaped relationship with firm propensity to patent. Specifically, we argue that family firms’ desire to prevent losses of current socioemotional wealth inhibits their propensity to patent until a threshold level of family ownership, beyond which the family’s socioemotional wealth is secured and a greater focus on prospective financial gains attainable through patents is possible. We also suggest that environmental munificence moderates this nonlinear relationship such that a low-munificent environment accentuates the potentially detrimental (beneficial) effects of low-to-medium (medium-to-high) levels of family ownership on patents. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 4,198 small- and medium-sized family firms.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2018
Keywords
Intellectual property protection, patent, innovation, environmental munificence, family firms
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-41546 (URN)10.1177/1042258718806251 (DOI)IHHCeFEOIS (Local ID)IHHCeFEOIS (Archive number)IHHCeFEOIS (OAI)
2018-09-242018-09-242019-08-21