The link between corporate governance and internationalization in family business

The model of governance adopted in businesses is considered a significant variable for their success. The structure and the composition of the entrepreneurial summit influence the ways in which the resources are managed inside the business, thus determining an inevitable impact on the pursued strategies and on the achieved performance. This aspect is particularly appreciable in family businesses, given the peculiarities which inscribe them in the broadest business system. The already wide and rich literature on family businesses has highlighted a variety of topics, which studies look at (the generational turnover, the understanding of the success and development factors, the ways and peculiarities of the management models, corporate governance and its link with performance management, the orientation towards the value and the valuation of family businesses, the specificity of small and medium–sized businesses), among which internationalization does not have ample space. This paper aims at providing with a contribution to the study of this particular aspect, through an in-depth analysis on the internationalization of the Italian small and medium-sized businesses, focusing specifically on the analysis of the influence that the family nature of the management and the human capital have on the international development. It analyzes also if and to what extent the business family aspect has effects on the internationalization choices. Consequently, it aims at examining if the propensity to the international expansion and the emphasis of the same in family businesses differ significantly from the non-family businesses’ones. The topic appears particularly remarkable with reference to Italy, where the small and medium size and the family nature represent two fundamental characteristics of the industrial fabric