Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
R&D Investments in Family Firms: A Perspective of Swedish Family Firms
Jönköping University, Jönköping International Business School.
Jönköping University, Jönköping International Business School.
2016 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Problem: Several extant studies argue that family firm tend to invest less or even tend to avoidR&D investments, yet R&D investments are essential for sustaining competitive advantage of afirm as they facilitate innovation. Nevertheless, under certain circumstances family firms couldalso prefer R&D investments. Departing from these knowledge and drawing upon resource-basedview & dynamic capabilities concepts, this thesis will explore how family firms perceive R&Dinvestments, furthermore, it will investigate factors influencing R&D investments in family firmsthrough an in-depth qualitative approach.

Purpose: To explore how family firms perceive R&D investments in the first place by utilizingSwedish family firms as the context which is aimed to provide a new viewpoint on R&Dinvestments in family firms from an in-depth approach. Furthermore, the study extends toinvestigate factors which have influence on whether or not family firms undertake R&Dinvestments

Method: The study applies multiple case studies strategy with six cases in total and eightrespondents. To support the study, semi-structured interview is used to collect the data, inaddition to researcher's note. The analysis of empirical findings comprises of two parts, firstly,the empirical findings are presented per case which are followed by the summary of findings fromall cases at the end based on the theoretical lenses. Afterward, a cross-case analysis is conductedto observe emerging patterns which are used to further adapt the preliminary conceptualframework made from frame of references.

Conclusions: Family firms according to their views on R&D could be divided into two groups.The first group consists of the firms without a dedicated R&D focus or firms that perceive R&D asembedded activity, while the latter is the firms with dedicated R&D focus. According to the waysthey perceive R&D, they subsequently put different emphasis on R&D investments. The firstgroup is rather reactive toward R&D, while the latter group is more proactive. These differencescould be explained by the internal and external influences (factors) which are found through theuse of resource-based view and dynamic capabilities. The internal factors are specialization,organizational culture and family history, while the external ones are trends and competition.Trends and specialization are found in almost all cases, and they explain the early engagement(without dedicated focus) of R&D in the firms. However, unlike trends, specialization mightpotentially lead to negative propensity toward R&D investments because of the competitiveadvantage gained from being specialized and knowledgeable in certain area. However, whencompetition comes into play, it might shift the circumstance by encouraging the firm to leave its“comfort zone”, thus would encourage R&D endeavors, in particular R&D investments especiallywhen the firm aims to lead in the market. Meanwhile, organizational culture could also be acatalyst for firms to focus on R&D, but it is very dependent on the culture instilled in the firmwhether or not it would encourage R&D. Firms with risk aversion, as suggested by literature andalso found in one of the cases would distance the firm from R&D investments. On the other hand,firms that show continuous learning and failure tolerating within their culture tend to put morefocus on R&D. And the last one, family history, which is found in three cases suggest a positiveinfluence toward R&D investments. The inventive behavior of the founder or former generationsis implanted in the family history, and being preserved by the current generations as corporateidentity or guiding values, of which contribute positively toward R&D investments in the firm.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. , p. 61
Keywords [en]
research & development investments, family firms, resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, swedish
National Category
Economics and Business
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-31078ISRN: JU-IHH-FÖA-2-20160293OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-31078DiVA, id: diva2:947341
Subject / course
IHH, Business Administration
Presentation
2016-05-28, Jönköping, 14:00 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2016-07-08 Created: 2016-07-07 Last updated: 2016-07-08Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(851 kB)1351 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 851 kBChecksum SHA-512
5edfed43b8add4b011cec068c214c6f86b2f7800cf40f474e6f1f7072bb5e211bc6857d7a04e1cd6995ec57aec79a912f360b72bb66efdb0f766adb503c4335d
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Finstorp, AxelPadang, Ferdinand
By organisation
Jönköping International Business School
Economics and Business

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 1354 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 1769 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf