Similar, but Different - Antecedents of Dynamic Capabilities in Family and non Family-owned SMEs

Sammanfattning:

The several turbulences that characterize our world are nowadays setting new challenges for the companies, especially for small and medium-sized entreprises, which are an essential type of business for the global economic growth, employment and innovation. Dynamic capabilities can be the solution to these changes and help SMEs overcome challenging environments.

This research wants to shed light on the mystery around the antecedents of the development of dynamic capabilities in family and non family-owned SMEs. The literature has particularly focused on general SMEs and larger companies when researching this matter. However, to which extent can the literature of dynamic capabilities in SMEs be applicable for family-owned SMEs? What are the differences between the antecedents that drive family-owned SMEs to develop dynamic capabilities compared to the non family-owned SMEs? We argue that there is a need for more researches on the differences between these heterogeneous groups of SMEs.

This study wants to compare the development of dynamic capabilities taking into consideration several variables: managerial attitude, resources and skills, organizational structure, learning orientation and organizational culture. These variables have been studied using a qualitative approach, through interviews with eight Spanish companies: four non family-owned SMEs and four family-owned SMEs.

The findings advance in the research of dynamic capabilities and underline the importance of study these two groups of SMEs separately. Differences were found in the social capital and cognitive capabilities of the manager, the role of reputation, path dependency, implementation, coordination, traditions, learning motivation, commitment and entrepreneurial attitude. From the differences above mentioned, we conclude it is not possible to discuss SMEs without taking into consideration the ownership variable. Therefore, there is a need to start particularizing the future researches on SMEs.