A socioemotional wealth and social capital perspective on demonstrating how government ties and cooperation affect the entrepreneurship of family firms

ABSTRACTBased on the socioemotional wealth and social capital perspectives, this study offers insights into the implications of managerial ties for corporate entrepreneurship (CE) by focusing on business and political ties in the context of emerging markets. Moreover, the mediating effects of cooperation among firms on the relationship between business (or political) ties and CE are examined, and the moderated mediation effects of family governance on the above mediating relationships are then further examined. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey and the Taiwan Economic Journal database. All hypotheses were examined by employing regression analysis and Hayes’s PROCESS macro model on a dataset of 173 Taiwanese public companies. The findings show that (1) business and political ties increase CE; (2) cooperation among firms positively mediates the influences of business and political ties on CE; (3) family governance enhances the positive indirect effect of business ties on CE via cooperation; however, the adverse influence of firms’ political ties on their cooperation with others in family governance, which subsequently reduces CE. Solidarity within social networks promotes conspiracies and unethical behaviour. These findings support our predictions.KEYWORDS: Business tiespolitical tiescorporate entrepreneurshipcooperationfamily firms AcknowledgmentWe would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief of Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Professor James Fleck, and the two anonymous reviewers whose constructive criticism led to significant improvements in the paper. Financial support from the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan, R.O.C. (NSTC 108-2410-H-606-003) is highly appreciated.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsTingko LeeTingko Lee is an associate professor at Graduate School of Resources Management & Decision Science, Management College, National Defense University, Taiwan. His current research interests are in the area of corporate entrepreneurship, managerial ties, leadership, TMT and family business. His papers have been published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Journal of Family Business Strategy, Journal of Management & Organization, Journal of Air Transport Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management and others.Jun-You LinJun-You Lin is a professor at the Department of Management and Information, National Open University, Taipei, Taiwan. He received his doctorate in the Graduate Institute of Business Administration, College of Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. His current research interests include innovation management and entrepreneurship. He has published papers in Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, European Management Journal, Journal of Technology Transfer, Review of Management Science, Journal of Retaining and Consumer Services, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Management Decision, Entrepreneurship Research Journal, International Journal of Technology Management, Journal of Business-to Business Marketing, Service Industrial Journal and other journals.