The trajectories of internationalisation followed by family firms can be viewed from several theoretical approaches - phases of the internationalisation process; international entrepreneurship, sociological perspective, family business theory. An historical perspective of the internationalised...

This chapter focuses on a particular typology of family firms – the larger ones – in Europe. Its aim is to identify and discuss the main common characteristics of big European family firms, as well as the determinants of their enduring persistence. In order to achieve this, the dynamic and...

Most listed firms are freestanding in the U.S, while listed firms in other countries often belong to business groups: lasting structures in which listed firms control other listed firms. Hand-collected historical data illuminate how the present ownership structure of the United States arose: (1)...

This paper attempts to show the importance of history in influencing the structure of corporate ownership in France. The strong concentration of family ownership in France is traced to historical weaknesses in the money and capital markets that forced families to have recourse to self-financing....

Ethnographic methods are applied to this investigation of the links between language and business culture found in letters exchanged in the 1880s, 1900s, 1930s, and 1940s among members of a long-lived family-owned business. The letters are contained in three sets of correspondence between three...