Evolutionary Long-Term Entrepreneurial Processes in Business Families

This chapter draws on socio-economic evolutionary theories of organizational change to explain transgenerational continuity and growth issues of successful long-lived entrepreneurial business families. We suggest that wider political, social, and economic forces that cannot be predicted, act as selective mechanisms at different levels of resolution (within a firm; within a group of firms, on a whole industry, or even on the fabric of the whole business family). The complex interaction of these evolutionary processes is illustrated in two contrasting empirical cases from Scotland and Uganda. There are challenges to researchers in integrating emergent evolutionary changes (based on evolutionary theory) with those associated with planned strategy-based theories stressing the role of strategic long-term entrepreneurial orientation in transgenerational business families.