1683: Female Managers, Host-Country Social Patriarchy, and Family Firm Internationalization (20861)

Family firms tend to lag in export intensity compared to their non-family counterparts. Scholars attribute such exporting gap to the agency costs perceived by family firms in internationalization decisions. We argue, however, that this perspective overlooks gender distinctions in risk attitudes among agents. Therefore, we explore the role of female managers, theorizing that their unique risk attitudes and decision-making qualities alleviate family firms’ managerial constraints, enhancing these firms' export intensity. Yet, we propose that the effectiveness of female managers in narrowing family firms’ exporting gap is contingent on host countries with lower social patriarchy. Discriminatory attitudes against females may lead to perceiving female managers as liabilities in internationalization, intensifying constraints on family firms' export efforts, thus limiting their exporting scope. Based on a dataset of 11,915 Swedish private firms (2004–2016), we advance theory on family firm internationalization, providing evidence that female managers serve as facilitators of family firms’ exporting. We also respond to calls for more research on host countries on family firms’ internationalization by investigating the role host-country social patriarchy as a critical institutional contingency.

view paper (if available)