Family business groups in India: a resource based view of the emerging trends

Abstract

Following the lead of Habbershon and Williams (1999), this paper uses the resource-based view of firms to understand the strategic responses of nine family groups to the more liberalized environment in India’s emerging economy. Using the concepts and empirical findings in the resource-based view (RBV) stream of literature, this manuscript offers six hypotheses related to the restructure of business portfolios, structural changes within organizations, and the induction of professional family and nonfamily members. I also identify five emerging trends in the responses and use them to test the hypotheses. Data from published sources indicates a high degree of support for the hypotheses. The manuscript also shows how the resource-based view of the firm provides an excellent theoretical framework for understanding and interpreting these responses and suggests directions for further research.