Internationalization Strategies at a Crossroads: Family Business Market Diffusion in the Post-COVID Era

COVID-19 is the last nail in the coffin of globalization as we know it. This research aims to explore the influence of capital ownership in the (re)design of internationalization strategies among firms, considering the new macroeconomic challenges. It is commonly accepted that the extent to which family businesses approach internationalization differs from their counterparts; as such, the identification of leverages or hinderers in this process and the potential singularities of these firms is urgent. Intermittences in global operation and discontinuous internationalization paths remain overlooked in the theory. Continuity or intermittence across the internationalization strategies, as well as their determinants, were tested using data from the triennia of 2018, 2019, and 2020; the data were gathered from the Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System Database (SABI), through a balanced panel of 26,154 firms belonging to all sectors of the manufacturing industry. Empirical evidence supports the heterogeneity of strategies among family businesses, as well as dissimilarities from their non-family counterparts. The firm dimension, experience in global operation, and the regional ecosystem in which the firm is embedded are identified as being central in internationalization endeavors. Urgency and assertiveness of policy action addressing the new macroeconomic challenges are required to foster economic recovery, and exploring extant entrepreneurial fabric potential and the already-established networks will determine the pace and success of the measures. Moreover, empirical evidence reinforces region-specific actions to be implemented, proposing the re-location of economic activities while promoting the intensification of spatial clustering and international networking. Designing an accurate policy package places demands upon heterogeneous players and layers of action, overlapping clusters and networks, and the creation of a multilevel ecosystem in which the flow of economic, human, and knowledge aspects circulate, reinforcing community resilience.