6. Contributions, limitations, and future research
This study contributes to the literature on family firms and management practices in several ways. First, we contribute theoretically to increasing our knowledge of the upper echelons theory by increasing our understanding of two family firm-specific TMT diversities induced by family influence. Although the TMT represents a good way of testing family involvement in the business, previous research has largely overlooked the influence of family involvement in the TMT (Kraiczy et al., 2014; Sciascia et al., 2013; Segaro et al., 2014). We have focused on the family TMT ratio and generational involvement as two important TMT diversities found only in family firms. These two family firmspecific diversities were previously used to analyze innovation issues in family firms (Arzubiaga et al., 2017; Kraiczy et al., 2014), but not in the relationship between EO and internationalization. Accordingly, we have contributed to enhancing our knowledge of upper echelons theory, distinguishing between the benefits and drawbacks of family firm-specific TMT diversities (De Massis et al., 2013). The family’s influence plays an important role in strategic decision-making and shapes the existing positive relationship between EO and the firm’s degree of internationalization. The diverse formation of TMTs with different expertise, experience, and knowledge may not result always beneficial, as in the case of generational involvement. The expected positive effect was negative. This is an example of how diversity in the TMT can be a double-edged sword. More research is needed to address generational involvement’s different implications in strategic decision-making, such as internationalization.
