Product development and (international) market development as reinforcing growth strategies - The role of familiy control

It is a crucial question for strategic management and international business scholars if product development and (international) market development serve as two substitutive or reinforcing growth strategies in the short run. This question may be particularly pertinent to family firms, which are typically described as organisations with idiosyncratic resources and capabilities. Drawing upon recent research on resource orchestration and dynamic capabilities in family firms, we test if family firms are better able to grow via product development and (international) market development than non-family firms. Based on a comprehensive data set, we find that family firms can better capitalise on product development and (international) market development as combined growth strategies. The results of our structural equation model imply that product and (international) market development reinforce each other more strongly in family firms than in non-family firms.