ABSTRACT

Being authentic implies maintaining a character of genuineness and honesty, while remaining coherent with oneself and one’s surrounding context over time. It can represent a critical asset to be preserved and exploited, especially in the case of family firms. This paper explores the role of authenticity as a driving force for foreign sales expansion in those family firms that are rooted in a territory. While previous studies emphasize the emergence of a trade-off between maintaining linkages with local traditions and foreign sales expansion, this paper proposes an original perspective. We aim to answer the following question: How does a family business maintain a territorial-based identity by going international? Methodologically, this study presents the cross-case analysis of six Italian family firms whose products are expressions of the cultural legacy, history, and traditions of a territory. The results of the study find their synthesis in a model for family business internationalization driven by a territorial-based authenticity. We identify four building blocks that allow for pursuing the maintaining of the links with local traditions as well as helping family firms to grow on foreign markets, namely, integration, retention, evangelization, and reinforcement.

摘要

真实意味着保持真诚和诚实的性格，同时随着时间的推移与自己和周围的环境保持一致。它可以代表需要保护和利用的重要资产，尤其是在家族企业的情况下。本文探讨了真实性在那些扎根于某个领土的家族企业中作为海外销售扩张驱动力的作用。虽然之前的研究强调了在保持与当地传统的联系和海外销售扩张之间的权衡，但本文提出了一个原创的观点。我们旨在回答以下问题：家族企业如何通过走向国际来保持基于地域的身份？在方法论上，本研究对六家意大利家族企业进行了跨案例分析，这些企业的产品体现了一个地区的文化遗产、历史和传统。研究结果在基于地域的真实性驱动的家族企业国际化模型中发现了它们的综合。我们确定了四个有助于保持与当地传统的联系并帮助家族企业在国外市场发展的基石，即整合、保留、传播和强化。