Donatella Depperu

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between ownership concentration in family firms and their propensity to establish foreign direct investments (FDI) in locations with significant cultural distance from their home country. It also examines how this relationship is influenced by the contingent role of internal (i.e. performance below target) and external (i.e. the global financial crisis) threats. Design/methodology/approach: The hypotheses are tested using a panel of 730 medium- to large-sized Italian family firms over the period 2004–2014. Findings: We find that firms with high family ownership concentration are less likely to establish FDI in culturally distant countries. However, this tendency diminishes when firms experience performance below target or during a global economic downturn. Originality/value: This study offers a more comprehensive understanding of family firms' strategic behaviors in international markets by unveiling the dual impact of family ownership concentration on FDI location choices. It shows that while concentrated ownership often leads to an overreliance on family-centric priorities, it also provides the governance flexibility needed to recalibrate these biases in response to economic threats. This finding challenges the conventional views of family firms as either consistently risk-averse due to BB or as risk-seeking to safeguard their socioemotional wealth. Instead, it portrays family firms as adept at balancing their family priorities with the demands of the global market, adeptly shifting strategies in response to both internal and external economic pressures.

The growth of cultural firms is important in developing local economies, enhancing employment, and improving urban sustainability, but it is difficult to achieve in fragmented industries that are populated by the smallest firms and offer a particularly unfavorable context for growth. The study takes a contingency perspective and contributes to both the literature on business strategy in fragmented industries and that on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by identifying the strategies implemented in a fragmented cultural industry, determining which of them are associated with a firm’s expected growth, and finding the few firm-specific factors that are associated with growth. It also complements the extant literature on art galleries by looking at them from the understudied strategic perspective. Suggestions for practitioners and policy makers are included.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze corporate scope decisions in acquisitions with a focus on the relationship between target country unfamiliarity and acquirer-to-target relatedness and on the moderating effects played by product diversification and international experience.Design/methodology/approach: Using a dataset of 689 acquisitions completed in the period 2007-2013 by acquirers located in 60 countries, this paper utilizes an ordered logistic regression analysis.Findings: With greater target country unfamiliarity, acquirers are encouraged to pursue greater acquirer-to-target relatedness. This finding suggests that acquirers tend to seek a balance between product and international diversification to reduce the sources of uncertainty in their acquisition moves. While past international experience strengthens this relationship, diversification experience has a negative moderating effect and hence encourages acquirers to reduce relatedness at increasing market unfamiliarity.Originality/value: The originality of this paper is twofold. First, the authors extend the traditional internationalization-diversification framework to an unfamiliarity-relatedness relationship in the context of acquisitions. Second, the authors propose a construct of target country unfamiliarity in acquisitions that goes beyond the traditional domestic vs cross-border dichotomy by including previous experience in the target country.

This work is aimed at investigating the factors that can foster CEO turnover, being acknowledged as one of the most crucial events in a firm’s life. The study examines CEO turnover before and after the IPO process, looking at firms going or recently gone public, with a specific focus on the effect of performance and the institutional context. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of non-financial companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange in the period 2000-2009.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the organizational slack and acquisition experience on acquisition behavior across varying environmental conditions. Drawing from behavioral theory and the threat-rigidity hypothesis, the paper explores firm acquisition behavior, in terms of type of acquisitions, before and during the recent economic downturn.Design/methodology/approach: – Using data on 385 acquisitions in Italy in the period 2007-2010, the paper tests hypotheses on how organizational slack and acquisition experience influence the likelihood of cross-border and diversifying acquisitions relative to domestic, non-diversifying acquisitions prior to and during the economic downturn.Findings: – Results suggest that the availability of financial resources and acquisition experience both have an important influence on acquisition behavior. Firms with greater slack and acquisition experience were more likely to make diversifying and/or cross-border acquisitions, compared to domestic non-diversifying acquisitions, particularly during an economic downturn, than firms with lower levels of slack and acquisition experience.Originality/value: – The paper extends behavioral theory and threat-rigidity hypothesis, highlighting their applicability to acquisition behavior across varying economic conditions. Slack resources and acquisition experience appear to be particularly salient during challenging economic times.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of export consortia in developing countries as a means to develop intangible resources that enhance SMEs' competitiveness.Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents a framework for the analysis of the processes through which intangible resources are developed within export consortia. The methodology employed involves in‐depth case studies of nine export consortia supported by UNIDO in Morocco, Peru, Tunisia, and Uruguay, during the period 2004‐2007.Findings: The participation in export consortia is very important not only to develop intangible resources that increase competitiveness abroad, but also for becoming more competitive at domestic level. This is particularly relevant for SMEs from developing countries.Research limitations/implications: The findings are based on nine case studies of export consortia in developing countries. All these consortia are rather young and developed with the support of UNIDO. Future studies should explore the issues addressed in the paper through the analysis of consortia of different size and age as well as different countries.Practical implications: The findings and the framework proposed can be used by SMEs, consultants and agencies that support export consortia in the formulation of the consortium strategy and by policy‐makers to identify conditions for successful cooperation among SMEs.Originality/value: The research is among the few that analyze export consortia and the first to offer a conceptual framework and empirical evidence linking intangible resources, export consortia, SMEs and developing countries.