The Internationalization of a Family Business Group: The Ownership, the Leadership and the importance of the Socio-Emotional Wealth Dimensions

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide some illustrative evidence to understand the distinctive forms of governance implemented by a well-established family business group (FBG) and to highlight the relative importance given to the different dimensions of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) during the internationalization process.

Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on multi-level and longitudinal data, the research provides in-depth insights into how the affiliated firms are linked to the focal firm, how the founding family in a large FBG organizes the top leadership roles spanning multiple countries and whether the inter-organizational and inter-personal networks changes over time and which are the most important items representing the SEW dimensions.

Findings
From the findings, it emerges that family ownership, family leadership and the presence of trusted people as pivotal actors in the FBG’s internationalization process.

Originality/value
The originality of the research stems from its contribution because despite providing illustrative evidence based on a single case-study, the findings offer additional insights over the importance of and the instrumental role played by SEW preservation as a perspective to explain FBGs’ internationalization.