The Hidden Forces Behind Family Firms
Sarah Burrows
Assistant Professor
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Sarah Burrows:
I like to say that I study entrepreneurship in the context of families. There's this great quote by Minola and colleagues, 2016, that states that families are the springboards for repeated acts of entrepreneurship, and I basically try to unpack that. My passion really lies in understanding how what goes on in the family influences what goes on in the firm, as well as how that influences that next generation's willingness to pursue entrepreneurship.
Families are one of the oldest institutions out there, and research shows that how you grow up, how you are parented, has a direct effect on your development and who you become as an adult. So I just think it's really interesting that for those business owners that choose to mix family and business — two of our main institutions — what does that reciprocal relationship look like? How do they affect one another?
I would say one of the projects I hold nearest to my heart is my dissertation. Not just because of the blood, sweat and tears that went into it, but because of the people that participated. In brief, I was studying enterprising families, and all this means is that these are families where there are multiple generations of entrepreneurs. I interviewed the parents and the children, irrespective of whether or not they were entrepreneurs, and my goal was to understand why does one child choose it and the other reject it? I'm just incredibly grateful that these participants trusted me, let me into their family history and gave me an idea of their lived experiences.
That's a big motivator for me to do this research, to have those connections. This research has actually motivated me to start a slightly new area of research where I, along with co-authors, are now looking to study ways in which we can improve entrepreneurial wellbeing. I'm particularly fascinated with how can we protect that family system. Entrepreneurs are incredibly important to our economy, and so how can we support them mentally and socially?