Family firms going international: integrating corporate identity-building processes and socioemotional wealth dimensions

This study aims to improve understanding of how identity-building processes shape corporate identity and how dimensions of socioemotional wealth affect internationalization pathways in a family firm. The paper uses an in-depth case study of an Italian family firm internationally recognized as excellent in its industry. We developed an integrative theoretical model, combining socioemotional wealth frameworks and elements of the corporate identity mix. This enabled us to incorporate more theoretical knowledge from the field of international management into the domain of family business research. The latent construct of socioemotional wealth provides an in-depth understanding of the multidimensional nature of corporate identity-building processes and shows the intertwined nature of corporate identity and the “affective endowment” in the development of internationalization strategies.