Internationalizing the Family Business: Facilitating and Restraining Factors

Family businesses are faced with many factors that either facilitate or restrain internationalization. The company's strategy, organizational structure, culture, and developmental stage are intertwined with the family's international characteristics, and each area involves different facilitating or restraining factors. This article, based on experience, previous studies, and a series of interviews, examines internationalization in family businesses. The authors suggest that if the company is unable to take advantage of the factors that facilitate internationalization or overcome the factors that restrain it, the process will probably fail.