Entrepreneurial aspirations among family business owners

Abstract

This paper contributes to our understanding of the intersection between entrepreneurship and family businesses by examining the business aspirations of immigrant entrepreneurs from five different ethnic minority communities in the UK. It explores differences in the entrepreneurs' antecedents that might explain differences in their aspirations and examines the interaction between aspirations and business behaviour and outcomes. It finds that despite the importance of the family in their businesses, ethnic minority entrepreneurs have diverse aspirations. It is possible to distinguish between those with business‐first, family‐first, money‐first and lifestyle‐first aspirations. Their educational and family background affects entrepreneurs' aspirations, as does their stage on the family life cycle. Differences in aspirations are related to the nature of business, the way in which it is managed, the recruitment of professional managers and entrepreneurial performance. Our findings highlight the diversity in aspirations among family business owners and the complexity of the interaction between ethnicity, culture, class and entrepreneurship.