The Role of Family Influence in Firms' Strategic Responses to Threat of Imitation

We integrate theory on the resource-based view and threat rigidity with family business research to explain the role family influence plays in responding to threats of imitation. As opposed to family control, we find that family influence affects resource management actions taken in response to threats of imitation. Specifically, results show that R&D investment and internationalization actions mediate the relationship between imitability and performance. However, we find that family-influenced firms are less rigid in their responses to such threats, reducing R&D and internationalization significantly less than firms without family influence.