The Impact of Firms' Social Embeddedness on Family Firm Growth.

We integrate insights from the social embeddedness perspective with Penrosean growth theory to explore how family relationships within entrepreneurial teams influence family firm growth. We find that teams of spousal entrepreneurs have a positive impact on firm growth, whereas teams of sibling entrepreneurs have a negative impact on growth. The level of education of the firm's workforce strengthens spousal entrepreneurs' ability to grow the firm. Also, firm age undermines the positive growth effects of spousal entrepreneurs, while it renders the growth effects of sibling entrepreneurs positive. These results carry important contributions for research on firm growth, the social embeddedness of organizations, entrepreneurship, and family business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]