The Impact of the Family on Entrepreneurial Outcomes : The Role of Social Embeddedness

Abstract: Most entrepreneurs have families that highly influence their business­ activities. However, scholars have paid limited attention to how the family as a specific social context impacts entrepreneurial outcomes, such as new venture creation, firm growth, and exit from entrepreneurship­. This thesis investigates how the family influences such outcomes at different levels of analysis: the individual level, the firm level, and the regional level. The theoretical framework is developed by integrating the theory­ of social embeddedness with literature on family business and entrepreneurship­. Empirical evidence is based on a unique multi-level­ Swedish database combining individual-, firm-, and regional-level data.By providing an in-depth understanding of whether the family influence pertains to the whole entrepreneurial process or only to particular entrepreneurial outcomes, this thesis contributes to a new understanding of the family’s role in entrepreneurship.