When a high-quality niche strategy is not enough to spur family-firm internationalization: The role of external and internal contexts

While prior research suggests that family firms are risk-averse with regards to internationalization, Hennart et al. (J Int Bus Stud, 2017) show that family firms selling high-quality niche products internationalize as much as their nonfamily-firm counterparts. Our Counterpoint extends Hennart et al.’s (2017) thesis by suggesting that this effect is not universal but depends on the external context (country-of-origin pro-market development) and internal context (professionalization practices). Our study demonstrates that family firms selling high-quality niche products struggle to internationalize when they are from countries with weaker pro-market development. We also show that professionalization practices benefit family firms selling high-quality niche products abroad.