Family Business Exposure And Entrepreneurial Intentions

Entrepreneurs have played an important role in the global economic development,which has also led to the rise of entrepreneurial research in the past twenty years.One of the most import research domains includes exploring entrepreneurial intentions.From the survey data abroad,we find that individuals with family business background do have stronger entrepreneurial intentions than others.The domestic survey data also show that quite a large proportion of entrepreneurs have family business background,who often call themselves "entrepreneurial second generation".In general,business family offspring do have stronger entrepreneurial intentions than others who do not have family business background.But is this just because they have easier access to funds?We think this is not enough to explain the unique impact of family business background.Although business family offspring do not lack financial support,their entrepreneurial intentions differs,which shows that there are some more complex reasons behind this.This research starts from the phenomenon of family business exposure,and we analyze why entrepreneurial intentions of business family offspring differ.Family business exposure is the process in which the individuals are influenced by the family entrepreneurs and family businesses in the family business environment.Through the review on entrepreneurial intention research,we find that existing research has treated family business exposure as a holistic variable,and they capture individuals' degree of family business exposure by measuring "existence”or "how much",so there are many inconsistent conclusions;At the same time,the current research does not further distinguish the types of entrepreneurial intentions according to the particularity of the family business context.Therefore,our research will further explore:Why does family business exposure have different impacts on entrepreneurial intentions?We believe that in the process of family business exposure,business family offspring can learn indirectly by observing the families' entrepreneurial behavior.Therefore,this study is mainly based on the observational learning perspective to explore the relationship between family business exposure and entrepreneurial intentions.Based on observational learning perspective,we propose that family business exposure would promote business family offspring's observational learning towards their entrepreneurial parents,and form different "perceptions" about entrepreneurial outcomes,and these perceived entrepreneurial outcomes will further affect their entrepreneurial intentions.In sub-study I,we propose that family business exposure would make business family offspring perceive the personal rewards obtained by their parents'entrepreneurship,thus affecting their own entrepreneurial intentions.We verify the positive impact of perceived entrepreneurial personal rewards on entrepreneurial intentions and the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.In addition,we also discover the negative moderation effect of family business involvement(it indicates business family offspring's experiences of directly participating in family businesses),which indicates that individuals can perceive some negative information related to entrepreneurship through family business exposure.So,in sub-study 2,we use qualitative research methods to encode business family offspring's perceptions about their parents' negative entrepreneurial experiences.Through the exploratory research of sub-study 2,we get a preliminary research conjecture:business family offspring's perceived family relational conflict may have an impact on their family business intrapreneurial intentions.To provide further theoretical analysis and empirical evidence for this research conjecture,we conduct sub-study 3;in sub-study 3,we examine the indirect effects of perceived family relational conflict on the next generation's family business intrapreneurial intentions and the moderation effects of family business emotional commitment in the indirect relationship.There are three main innovations in this research:Firstly,when most of the studies about business family offspring focus on their succession intentions,we switch the focus to entrepreneurial intentions of business family offpring.By considering the"entrepreneurial second generation" phenomena,we provide new thoughts for exploring the social value of family businesses.Secondly,this paper analyzes the phenomenon of family business exposure based on the observational learning perspective,and we specifically analyze the perception changes of business family offspring,and shorten the relationship between family business exposure and entrepreneurial intentions.Thirdly,this study focuses on the particularity of the family business context,and further analyze and explore the types of entrepreneurial intentions.At the end of the article,we conducted a summary of the research results and a comprehensive discussion.At the end of our research,we summarize the research results and discuss them comprehensively.We find that one of the ways that family business exposure affects entrepreneurial intentions is:family business exposure can make individuals form different perceptions about entrepreneurial outcomes,when individuals have different perceptions of entrepreneurial outcomes,their entrepreneurial intentions differ.Finally,we refine the theoretical contributions and future research directions,and provide the practical enlightenment for cultivating business family offspring's entrepreneurial intentions.