Family Business Heterogeneity in Latin America

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 1-8

3. Theoretical Perspectives on Heterogeneity in Latin American Family Businesses

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 9-23

4. The Syncretism (The First Wave): The First Family Business in the Region

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 25-47

5. First Migration Flows (the Second Wave): A New Culture of Family Businesses

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 49-70

6. The Emergence of the Family Group (the Third Wave): From State-Owned Companies to Large Family Groups

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 71-98

7. The New Wave of Global Family Entrepreneurs (the Fourth Wave)

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 99-124

8. Conclusions, Lessons Learned, and New Avenues for Further Research

   • Claudio G. Müller, Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

   Pages 125-144

9. Back Matter

   Pages 145-147

   PDF

This book explores the emergence and evolution of family firms throughout Latin America, from the colonial period to the modern day. In the course of Latin American history, institutions evolved to create order and reduce the uncertainty of the market. Using institutional change theory, social capital theory in organizational settings and resource-based view as organizing frameworks, the authors show how differences among family business in the region developed by examining the influx of foreign settlers, the shift from state-owned enterprises to privatized family business groups, and the effect of globalization. This text, presenting cases of family firms across several countries, offers entrepreneurship scholars a fresh perspective of a neglected region. 

• family firms
• entrepreneurship
• immigration flows
• Intergenerational work
• institutional change
• family groups

Family Business Heterogeneity in Latin America is the book we have been needing, but not just for Latin America! Muller and Sandoval-Arzaga have done what we should all have been doing in studying families in business - They have documented how the larger social, legal, economic environments impact the formation and growth of family enterprises. All too often we treat these cases as though only the family and the business and perhaps the competition determine behavior. I hope scholars learn the lessons this book has to offer.

—Frank Hoy, Beswick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Foisie Business School, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA.

With over 7 million families of Italian descent in Argentina and the largest Japanese diaspora in Sao Paolo, Brazil outside of Japan, Latin America is a mosaic of varied cultures and communities that makes each region within the continent unique. Authors of this must-read book are to be complemented for bringing to life migratory flows and idiosyncratic fascinating journeys of families featured in it! A delightful thought-provoking reading!

—Pramodita Sharma, Schlesinger Grossman Chair of Family Business, Grossman School of Business, University of Vermont, USA

Family businesses in Latin America carry a series of stereotypes and one of them is that they are all small. This book introduces us to Latin American family businesses and the social and economic impacts far beyond the families that have owned and operated them. The heterogeneity of family businesses in Latin America forces us to study the importance of Latin America as a global player, but especially the fundamental role that family businesses in this region have played in the economic development of their countries during the last 500 years.

 —Alfredo De Massis, Professor of Entrepreneurship & Family Business, Free University of Bolzano, Italy; Lancaster University, United Kingdom and IMD, Switzerland.

This important work gives us an opportunity to discover the origin of the admirably successful family legacies emerging from Latin America. Recognizing their history and culture and how these have evolved and shaped their present identities is key to realizing the important roles they are to play in the future of their countries. Acknowledging heterogeneity as alternately a source of adversity and a competitive advantage, the authors are taking us on a journey through time and are demonstrating the powerful role of multigenerational family enterprises in shaping Latin America’s economies.

—Ramia El Agamy, Editor-in-Chief, Tharawat Magazine, Host of “The Family Business Voice.”

 In this new book, professors Claudio Muller and Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga provide a much-needed in-depth investigation of the different types of family businesses that exist across Latin America. The particularly unique, and extremely valuable, historical approach that Muller and Sandoval-Arzaga offer open up many new paths through which we can better understand the role and importance of family businesses in this region of the world. The different chapters offer a plethora of perspectives that cast new light on how and why family businesses have played, and still play, a crucial role in the emergence and development of the economies in most Latin American countries. The book offers an excellent combination of history, theory and practical case studies that will make it valuable for scholars, students, and practitioners alike. I highly recommend this unique and ambitions book to anyone who has an interest in entrepreneurship, business history and family business in a Latin American context.

—Mattias Nordqvist, Professor of Business Administration, House of Innovation, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

• School of Economics and Business, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

  Claudio G. Müller

• Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico

  Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga

Claudio G. ​Müller is Professor of Management at School of Business and Economics at University of Chile. He is co-editor of Family Firms in Latin America (2018).

Fernando Sandoval-Arzaga is Academic Director of the Institute of Enterprising Families for Mexico and Latin America at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico.

 

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