A Mechanistic Perspective on Microfoundations: The Case of Entrepreneurship in Family Business

The entrepreneurial behaviour of family business has recently attracted a lot of attention on the part of family business and entrepreneurship scholars, the reason being that it is widely acknowledged as essential for the continuous flourishing of family firms in a competitive environment. This area of study, however, is characterized by high fragmentation both at the empirical and the conceptual level. Empirical fragmentation amounts to discrepant findings that are equally supported by empirical and theoretical reasons. Conceptual fragmentations amount to a proliferation of concepts that sometimes point to what is in fact the same phenomenon. In this paper, we respond to the call made by some scholars for the adoption of a micro-foundational lens to the study of family business and management phenomena, more in general. The search for micro-foundations leads, we argue, to the identification of causal mechanisms that can work as a unifying engine. In other terms, they can reveal underlying behavioural patterns that unify phenomena which appear as heterogeneous at the macro level. Drawing on the elements discussed above, the paper develops a conceptual model and research agenda.