Research On The Relationship Between Strategic Entrepreneurship And Sustainable Development Of Family Business

Strategic entrepreneurship (SE) is the combined product of entrepreneurship and strategic management. It combines entrepreneurship activities and strategic behavior effectively to maximize corporate wealth by building competitive advantage. For family business, the main goal is to maintain sustainable development. SE has become a powerful tool for enterprises to cope with the "new competitive situation" and "innovation trap" because it can better analyze how to identify and develop opportunities and how to build and maintain competitive advantage. Therefore, it does become an effective way for family business to get rid of the "short-lived" problem.Through summarizing the research findings related SE and the sustainable development of enterprises, we find few scholars research the relationship between SE and the sustainable development of Chinese family business, which results in the lack of reference theoretical results. Therefore, Grounded Theory which starts with original materials becomes our best choice. First, we collect comprehensive data of the sample through a variety of methods; Then, using the method of decoding to abstract concepts and categories from original materials and develope growth canonical model of the sample. Finally, we build a theoretical framework of SE and the sustainable development of Chinese family business basing on the results of Grounded Theory. Conclusions of this study are as follows:Firstly, entrepreneurs’ enterprising spirit, innovation spirit and adventurous spirit are the driving factors for the family business to carry out SE, and they provide guarantee for the family business’sustainable development. SE requires enterprises should not only focus on setting strategic goals, but also on identifying opportunities. Enterprising spirit can inspire the growing desire of family business; Innovating spirit helps entrepreneurs inspect changes of external environment with a unique perspective, and identify opportunities that others are not yet aware of; Adventurous entrepreneurs are willing to take entrepreneurial risks, and they are good at integrating resources to make up for lack of experience and reduce the uncertainty of entrepreneurial activity.Secondly, as elements of SE, innovation, external network, organizational learning, and internationalization can promote the sustainable development of family business by pushing it to build competitive advantage. Firstly, innovation not only refers to technology innovation, but also includes product system innovation etc. These innovation activities are not isolated from each other but persist in cross throughout the development of family business. Secondly, in the process of knowledge accumulation, family business can get more information to guide the formulation and modification of strategy. Thirdly, internationalization provides more growth opportunities for family business. Lastly, external network can get a lot of resources, which promote the family business to build competitive advantage and create a favorable external environment.Thirdly, depending on the combination of softness and hardness, staff team construction has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between SE and competitive advantage. Confucian benevolence, co-existing with the modern management system can strongly inspire employees’ responsibility. Specifically, in the process of SE, employees will continue to learn and access to resources which can effectively accelerate family business to use innovation, organizational learning or other strategic entrepreneurial activities to build competitive advantage.Lastly, policies and systems will increase the uncertainty of the environment, which brings about double impact on the family business strategic entrepreneurial process. On one hand, policies and systems can provide more opportunities, and these opportunities can accelerate building their competitive advantage (strategic behavior) and promote their new business (entrepreneurship) development. On the other hand, policies and systems will lead to a shortage of resources, which will seriously impede the formulation and implementation of strategic activities in the family business.