Spontaneous processes of reproduction of family-based entrepreneurship : an empirical research on the cognitive nature of the spin-offs

Spin-offs refer to the creation of new firms by employees breaking off from existing firms to give birth to companies of their own. However, this phenomenon has not been predominantly observed in the context of family businesses. Employment in the family firm creates an expectation that family members will act in a manner supportive to the family business: when an employee leaves to become an entrepreneur, parent companies also have to consider whether a spin-off could eventually become a competitor. In this view, when a spin-off process occurs, the parent company could ‘gain’ a new stakeholder. Cognitive scripts that enable codified knowledge to be transferred to a spin-off may grant the new firm a substantial advantage over the parent company. Therefore, it is assumed that such a stakeholder serves purposes similar to those of the parent company, however assuming a hostile attitude towards the latter. The plausibility of this hypothesis is subsequently tested through multivariate statistical techniques.