Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Family Firms

Family firms account for roughly 80% of all firms in Switzerland.

This leads us to the following questions: How do family firms manage to be successful over several generations? What are the antecedents of long-term success? We devote ourselves to these and further questions in our research activities in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation in family firms:

• Transgenerational Entrepreneurship
• Intrapreneurship
• Innovation in Family Firms
• International Research Project GUESSS

Selected Publications


Bird, M. & Zellweger, T. M. (2017). Relational embeddedness and firm growth: Comparing spousal and sibling entrepreneurs. In: Organization Science, 29 (2). 191-355.

Duran, P., Kammerlander, N., van Essen, M. & Zellweger, T. (2016). Doing more with less: Innovation input and output in family firms. In: Academy of Management Journal, 59 (4). 1224-1264.

Eddleston, K. H., Kellermanns, F. W., & Zellweger, T. (2012). Exploring the entrepreneurial Behavor of Family Firms: Does the Stewardship Perspective explain Differences?. In: Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 36(2), 347-367, DOI:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00402.x. 

Kammerlander, N., Burger, D., Fust, A., & Fueglistaller, U. (2015). Exploration and Exploitation in Established Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: The Effect of CEOs' Regulatory Focus. In: Journal of Business Venturing, 30(4), 582-602, DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2014.09.004.

Sieger, P., Gruber, M., Fauchart, E. & Zellweger, T. M. (2016). Measuring the social identity of entrepreneurs: Scale development and international validation. In: Journal of Business Venturing, 31 (5), 542-572, DOI:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2016.07.001.

Sieger, P., Zellweger, T., Aquino, K.,(2013) Turning Agents into Psychological Principals: Aligning Interests of Non-Owners Through Psychological Ownership. In: Journal of Management Studies 50 (3), 361-388, DOI:10.1111/joms.12017.

Sieger, P., Zellweger, T., Nason, R., & Clinton, E. (2011). Portfolio Entrepreneurship in Family Firms: A Resource-based Perspective. In: Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 5(4), 327-351, DOI:10.1002/sej.120.

Zellweger, T., & Sieger, P. (2011). How much Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is needed for Long-term Success?. In The Global STEP Booklet (pp. 8-11): The Global STEP Project. 

Zellweger, T. &Zenger, T. (2021). Entrepreneurs as scientists: A pragmatist approach to producing value out of uncertainty. In: Academy of Management Review, ISSN 0363-7425

 

Practitioner Studies

Hsueh, J. & Zellweger, T. (2018). The influence of family business background on next-generation entrepreneurship: A gift or a curse?

Zellweger, T., & Kammerlander, N. (2014). Family Business Groups in Deutschland: Generationenübergreifendes Unternehmertum in grossen deutschen Unternehmerdynastien.

From a Family Enterprise to an Entrepreneurial Family

Zu viele arbeiten mit dem Rückspiegel - Interview mit Thomas Zellweger (2022). Das Schaffhauser Wirtschaftsmagazin

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