Commentary: A framework for managing the familiness and agency advantages in family firms

This article uses a family-influenced, international, new venture creation case as a platform for addressing the importance of context when exploring entrepreneurship in start-up and growth companies. I raise crucial issues about how agency relationships and costs are evaluated in family firms, arguing that the competitiveness implications of agency can only be fully assessed in light of the larger context considerations. I suggest that agency is best evaluated as inputs and outputs in a contextual ecosystem. I utilize a family business ecosystems model to show that family is a distinct context for entrepreneurship and that it generates an idiosyncratic bundle of resources and capabilities that provide a potential agency advantage in new venture creation. Since the case findings indicate that the agency inputs and outputs change over time, I conclude by placing the potential agency advantages and constraints into an organizational life cycle framework. The goal of the article is to further the discussion on how families find their advantage in the entrepreneurial process.