Esra Memili

ESRA MEMILI, PhD is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship with Tenure and Margaret Van Hoy Hill Dean’s Notable Scholar at the Bryan School of Business and Economics at University of North Carolina- Greensboro. A scholar in family business and entrepreneurship, she is the author of more than 50 accepted and/or published manuscripts that have appeared in the entrepreneurship and family business journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Family Business Review, Small Business Economics, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Family Business Strategy, Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, and others. She is an Associate Editor at Journal of Small Business Management and Journal of Family Business Strategy, and a member of the Editorial Review Board of Journal of Management Studies, Family Business Review, Entrepreneurship Research Journal, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, and International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development. She has been a Guest Editor for Special Issues on family firms at Entrepreneurship and Regional Development Journal, Journal of Family Business Studies, International Journal of Financial Studies, and Journal of Family Business Management. She is the recipient of Family Owned Business Institute Research Scholars of Award and Grant (2009 & 2012). She has over 100 international, national, and regional academic conference presentations and won Best Paper and Research Proposal awards at IFERA (2017); Journal of Family Business Management (2013), USASBE [2013, 2014(2), & 2015]; FERC (2013 & 2017); Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (2013); SMA (2011); and Academy of Management (2008). She is also invited as guest speaker/presenter/commentator to international and national academic conferences such as Academy of Management annual meeting. She is the winner of Family Firm Institute 2012 Best Quantitative Dissertation Award. Her research appeared in media: WalletHub.com (2017) in the U.S.; Impulse Wissen (2013) in Hamburg, Germany, and Healio Orthotics/Prosthetics Business News (2013) in the U.S. Dr. Memili has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at School of Business, Tecnolo?gico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara, Mexico (Fall 2015); a Visiting Scholar at Leuphana University of Luneburg in Germany (Summer 2015) and Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey (Summer 2014), and a Visiting Professor to teach a doctoral seminar on family firms at Virginia Tech, Hospitality & Tourism Management (2015). Dr. Memili served as the Global Scholar Development Committee Chair at the Academy of Management-Entrepreneurship Division (2018-2021) and IFERA Board Member (2016-Present). She also served as USASBE 2017 conference SIG Vice Chair and Track Co-Chair (Philadelphia, PA); USASBE 2018 conference Family Business SIG Chair, Track Co-Chair, and Research Panel Co-Organizer (Los Angeles, CA). Dr. Memili is Chair of the UNCG Student Learning Enhancement Committee and Chair of the Entrepreneurship Program Assessment at the Bryan School of Business and Economics. She is 2020-21 Senior Research Excellence Award Winner at the Bryan School of Business and Economics and Honoree at UNCG Provost’s Office for Faculty Excellence in Research & Creativity 7 times last 7 years (2015-Present).

There are 57 included publications by Esra Memili :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Building a family firm image: How family firms capitalize on their family ties 2012 3953 We apply organizational identity theory to examine factors that lead family firms to create a family firm image and investigate how a family firm image impacts firm performance. We find that family firm pride, community social ties, and long-term ori...
Business-family interface and the performance of women entrepreneurs: The moderating effect of economic development 2018 2284 Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between women entrepreneurs’ firm performance and two dimensions (enrichment and interference) of the business-family interface (BFI) in the moderating context of the level of economic...
Cognitive Antecedents of Family Business Bias in Investment Decisions 2019 226 Lude and Prügl explored “family business bias,” a cognitive tendency where the family nature of a firm can often reduce investors’ perceived risk in investments. As a result, investors would display lower risk-avoidance in the gain domain and reinfor...
Control enhancing corporate governance mechanisms: Family versus non-family publicly traded firms. 2010 4124 In this dissertation, Essay 1 draws upon agency theory and corporate governance to classify control enhancing corporate governance provisions and to examine the use of these provisions within the context of publicly traded family firms. I argue that ...
Corporate Governance Provisions, Family Involvement, and Firm Performance in Publicly Traded Family Firms 2015 1731 This study examines the moderation effects of corporate governance provisions on the link between family involvement (i.e., family ownership and family management) in publicly-traded firms and firm performance by drawing upon agency theory, with a fo...
The critical path to family firm success through entrepreneurial risk taking and image 2010 3605 Drawing from organizational identity theory, we explore how family ownership and family expectations influence family firm image and entrepreneurial risk taking, and ultimately firm performance. We find support for a fully mediated model, utilizing a...
Cross-country technology gap in Latin America: Growth accounting and non-parametric approaches 2015 1276 Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the total factor productivity (TFP) gap between the USA and eight Latin American countries for the period of 1970-2000.Design/methodology/approach– The paper provides an exp...
Der Einfluss von Marktorientierung und innerfamiliären Nachfolgeintentionen auf die Wettbewerbsposition von Kleinunternehmen 2011 2022 Die Marktorientierung eines Kleinunternehmens und deren Marketingaktivitäten sind zur Entwicklung einer starken Wettbewerbsposition von strategischer Bedeutung. Es bedarf aber weiterer Forschung um zu verstehen, ob und wie der kontinuierliche Einf...
The determinants of family firms’ subcontracting: A transaction cost perspective. 2011 2446 In this article we compare the governance choices of family and non-family firms regarding their subcontracting tendencies. Based on transaction cost theory, we argue that family firms are less likely to engage in subcontracting than non-family firms...
The Determinants of Family Owner-Managers' Affective Organizational Commitment 2013 1957 Affective organizational commitment is an important predictor of the willingness to contribute to organizational goals and is of particular relevance to family firms, as these firms often rely on long-term involvement of family members through transg...
The determinants of venture creation time: a cross-country perspective 2012 1591 The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of macro-institutional and macro-non-institutional factors on the new venture creation time across emerging as well as developed economies in Europe using panel data from 2003 to 2006 in 15 emerging ...
Does Size Matter? The Moderating Effects of Firm Size on the Employment of Non-Family Managers in Privately-Held Family SMEs 2015 1030 Family firms' decisions to hire nonfamily managers are influenced by agency costs, socioemotional wealth concerns, and the availability of high-quality nonfamily managers in the labor pool. We hypothesize that owing to these factors, family ownership...
An empirical analysis of the impact of family moral support on Turkish women entrepreneurs 2016 1993 It is well documented that women entrepreneurs add exponential growth to the economic well-being of countries. The impact of family moral support on Turkish women entrepreneurs’ is examined including major challenges (i.e. personal problems and recog...
Entrenchment in Publicly-Traded Family Firms: Evidence from the S&P 500 2017 1084 Family involvement in corporate governance through ownership, management, and board membership presents a unique dilemma for understanding the strategic impetus and costs of entrenchment decisions. The presence of shared family ties and the family-ce...
Expanding the notion of entrepreneurship capital in American counties: A panel data analysis of 2002-2007. 2012 1919 Entrepreneurship capital refers to the factors of a region that drives new businesses (Audretsch and Keilbach, 2004). This study considers industry growth and performance in manufacturing, retail and service as components of entrepreneurship capital ...
Expert Insights on the Determinants of Cooperation in Family Firms in Tourism and Hospitality Sector 2015 285 Despite the inherent differences between family and non-family firms and heterogeneity among family companies, family involvement is under-researched in organizational studies, which limits the generalization of findings and leads to theoretical ambi...
Family and non-family sources of knowledge diversity in family firms: The role of causation logics 2020 83 This article will critically analyse the sources and the role of knowledge diversity in informing causation logics in family firms. Family firms rely on knowledge resources from both intra-family and extra-family sources, which may require different ...
Family firms’ professionalization: A resource-based view and institutional theory perspective. 2012 9296 Our article examines the assumption that family firms are an inferior organizational form as compared to non-family firms by analyzing family firms’ professionalization in developed and developing economies. We use institutional theory and resource-b...
Family governance and family firm outcomes 2016 1438 We are pleased to present this Special Issue on Family Governance in the Journal of Family Business Management. The focus of the six articles in this Special Issue is on family governance, idiosyncratic family firm behavior, strategies, and performan...
Family Involvement and the Use of Corporate Governance Provisions Protecting Controlling versus Noncontrolling Owners 2012 784 Drawing on agency theory and corporate governance, we first classify the corporate governance provisions within the context of family firms. Then, we probe the influence of family involvement (i.e. family ownership and family management) in corpora...
Family involvement in publicly traded firms and firm performance: a meta-analysis 2018 1858 Purpose:This study aims to investigate the effects of family involvement in corporations on firm performance. It remains unclear whether family-owned companies, or companies with other forms of family involvement in the corporate governance, perform ...
Family Social Capital, Venture Preparedness, and Start-Up Decisions: A Study of Hispanic Entrepreneurs in New England. 2009 3477 Using insights from the resource-based view, social capital, and network theories, the authors develop a model of how family social capital, as well as an entrepreneur’s knowledge capital and external social capital, influences the venture creation p...
Foreign venture presence and domestic entrepreneurship: A macro level study 2020 56 Building upon the literature of necessity- and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, this study explores how the presence of foreign ventures affect domestic entrepreneurship. We hypothesize that foreign ventures reduce necessity-driven entrepreneursh...
From family to families: pushing family entrepreneurship forward 2021 607 The present guest editorial offers a review of the different conceptualizations of families in business used in research to date, shedding light on the unique characteristics of each type. Understanding the family through the lens of social systems t...
Goal complexity in family firm diversification: Evidence from China 2020 620 Drawing upon goal setting theory with a focus on goal hierarchy and goal inconsistency, this study investigates complex relationships among various socioemotional wealth goals in the context of family firm diversification. Using bootstrapping techniq...
Going Beyond Research on Goal Setting: A Proposed Role for Organizational Psychological Capital of Family Firms. 2013 3359 Kotlar and De Massis found that membership assortment and the number of organizational members, as well as the imminence of succession, influence goal diversity in family firms. They also showed that goal diversity can be managed and family-centered ...
High-performance work practices, socioemotional wealth preservation, and family firm labor productivity 2021 116 Despite growing research on the effect of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on family firm performance, the implications of socioemotional wealth (SEW) preservation remain ambiguous. This stems from SEW preservation being used primarily as an e...
Home-based family firms, spousal ownership and business exit: a transaction cost perspective 2020 240 In this study, we compare family and non-family firms with respect to their exit due to financial reasons. We suggest that the principal dimensions of Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) (i.e., asset specificity, risk aversion, opportunism, and trust) may ...
The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Women’s Entrepreneurship 2014 2384 Women entrepreneurs around the world have increasingly contributed to innovation, employment, and wealth creation (Brush & Cooper, 2012; Brush, de Bruin, & Welter, 2009). Studies suggest that foreign direct investment can be an important determinant ...
The impact of networks on value co-creation for women-owned businesses 2021 653 Researchers have called for more attention to the issues surrounding women entrepreneurs and their businesses that impact their success and the value co-creation it brings to stakeholders. This study examines the moderation effect of social networks ...
The Impact of Small- and Medium-Sized Family Firms on Economic Growth 2015 2216 Drawing on family business studies and the knowledge-based view of economic growth, we develop and test a model of how the prevalence of small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) under family control affects economic growth. Specifically, we propose ...
Industry and Information Asymmetry: The Case of the Employment of Non-Family Managers in Small and Medium-Sized Family Firms 2016 227 As family firms begin to professionalize, they face an important crossroads in deciding whether to employ non-family managers. To preserve socioemotional wealth and minimize agency costs, family owners may resist employing non-family managers. Howeve...
The Influence of Family Moral Support and Personal Problems on Firm Performance: The Case of Korean Female Entrepreneurs 2014 2426 Less than one-fifth of all entrepreneurs are women in Korea (Xavier et al., 2012). We investigate the determinants of Korean women entrepreneurs’ firm performance. Specifically, we examine the impact of personal problems and family support and their ...
Institutional economics and firm creation in the hospitality and tourism industry: A comparative analysis of developing and developed economies 2017 970 Despite its importance for the global hospitality and tourism industry, firm creation remains an under-researched activity, particularly in terms of differences across developing and developed economies. By examining the impact of institutional struc...
Internationalisation of publicly traded family firms: a transaction cost theory perspective and longitudinal analysis 2017 1849 There has been a prominent stream of research investigating internationalisation of organisations. While the importance of transaction costs in the governance decisions of firms has been well established in the literature, transaction cost theory (TC...
The interplay between socioemotional wealth and family firm psychological capital in influencing firm performance in hospitality and tourism 2020 721 The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of family firm specific non-financial dynamics [socioemotional wealth (SEW) and family firm psychological capital (FFPsyCap)] on firm performance. We develop a model of how family firms' SEW preserva...
Japanese Women Entrepreneurs: Implications for Family Firms 2014 3763 Japanese women entrepreneurs and their predominately family-owned firms are a growing economic segment in Japan. The number of entrepreneurs of both genders in Japan is proportionately very small compared to other countries. The purpose of this resea...
Narrow-Framing and Risk Preferences in Family and Non-Family Firms 2021 76 Building upon prospect theory’s concept of narrow-framing, we explore family firms’ risk preferences across multiple decisions in corporate entrepreneurship. We argue that family firms’ decisions are less likely to be narrowly framed (more likely to ...
Non-family Employees in Family firms and Turnover Intentions: The Relevance of Identification and Justice Perceptions 2022 164 Many family firms hire and rely on non-family employees, therefore the mutual benefits provided to both family and non-family members are important. Yet, the perspectives of non-family employees have been under researched. Drawing upon organizational...
Nonfamily Employees’ Perceptions of Person-Organization Fit and Voluntary Turnover in Family Firms 2008 1766 The article investigates the employment of non-family employees by family firms. The opinions such employees hold regarding the procedures and policies of such firms, and the impact of these opinions on employee turnover, are analyzed. Theories of pe...
Nonfamily Managers, Family Firms, and the Winner's Curse: The Influence of Noneconomic Goals and Bounded Rationality 2013 2633 We explain why family-centered noneconomic goals and bounded rationality decrease the willingness and ability of small- and medium-sized family firms to hire and provide competitive compensation to nonfamily managers even in a labor market composed o...
Organizational Psychological Capital in Family-owned Franchise Firms and Corporate Social Responsibility 2014 4925 Research has linked Psychological Capital (PsyCap) to employees’ positive attitudes, behaviors, and performance in organizations and is characterized by hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism. Despite the demonstrated effects of PsyCap on empl...
Organizational Psychological Capital of Family Franchise Firms Through the Lens of the Leader–Member Exchange Theory 2014 4252 We explore organizational psychological capital (PsyCap) of family franchise firms by drawing on PsyCap and leader–member exchange (LMX) theories and family business literature. We suggest that unique family firm LMXs characterized by trust, respect,...
Perceptions of Entrepreneurship across Generations in Family Offices: A Stewardship Theory Perspective. 2013 7029 Family offices have been in existence for at least two centuries and have substantial impact on the wealth and prosperity of the families behind them. However, despite their practical relevance, family offices remain an under-researched topic in fami...
Performance and Behavior of Family Firms 2015 1805 This Guest Editor’s note reflects on the contributions of each article in the Special Issue on family firms’ behavior and performance. Building on this, several under-researched areas concerning family involvement in businesses are identified and the...
The propensity to use incentive compensation for non-family managers in SME family firms 2013 2599 Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to use the socio-emotional wealth perspective to examine how the level of family involvement reduces the propensity to use incentives to non-family managers in small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) family firms...
The propensity to use non-family managers’ incentive compensation in small and medium size family firms. 2013 3295 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use the socio-emotional wealth perspective to examine how the level of family involvement reduces the propensity to use incentives to non-family managers in small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) family firm...
The Pursuit of International Opportunities in Family Firms: Generational Differences and the Role of Knowledge-based Resources 2018 487 Research Summary: We argue that willingness (attitude toward risk, return, and socioemotional wealth), ability (extent of control), and resource availability influence the internationalization of family firms. We hypothesize that the internationaliza...
Role Conflicts of Family Members in Family Firms 2013 4189 The existence of role conflict among organizational members tends to create tensions inside organizations worldwide. However, in the context of family firms, having a dual role of being a member of a family and a member of the firm can represent inte...
Saudi women entrepreneurs: A growing economic 2013 3206 The purpose of this study is to explore the sources of knowledge and support for Saudi Arabian women entrepreneurs when starting or operating a new venture. The study examines factors relevant to knowledge base, family support, and external support f...
Sudanese women entrepreneurs. 2013 3854 The number of female entrepreneurs is growing around the globe. The rate of women’s entrepreneurship in Africa is higher than in any other region of the world but no studies have focused on North Sudan. We investigate female entrepreneurs in North Su...
Sustainability practices of family firms: the interplay between family ownership and long-term orientation 2017 3415 Sustainability practices are critical for family firms, as they relate directly to the continuity of the business and relationships with important stakeholders, such as members of the local community. Nevertheless, not all family firms wish to adopt ...
Towards a theory of non-family employees’ organizational identification. 2012 2849 Purpose – Since non-family employees form a large portion of employees in many family firms and they play an important role in the transgenerational survival of those firms, the purpose of this paper is to explore how family influence factors affect ...
Transaction Costs and Outsourcing Decisions in Small and Medium-Sized Family Firms 2011 4518 An important difference between family and nonfamily firms, and among different types of family firms, is in the way they make outsourcing decisions and thereby define the boundaries of the firm. The authors propose that transaction costs arising fro...
Value Creation and Value Appropriation in Innovation Process in Publicly-Traded Family Firms 2015 5405 Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the generational differences among publicly traded family firms in regards to value creation and value appropriation in the innovation process by drawing upon the knowledge-based view (KBV) and family ...
What Can Drive Successful Entrepreneurial Firms? An Analysis of the Inc. 500 Companies 2013 969 Entrepreneurship scholars tend to discuss the merits of using innovation over imitation for the creation of new ventures. We take a step forward to focus our attention on the drivers of successful entrepreneurial firms and use Inc. 500 companies to t...
Work-Family Balance and Marketing Capabilities as Determinants of Chinese Women Entrepreneurs' Firm Performance 2017 1611 The authors examine how work-family balance and marketing capabilities are related to Chinese women entrepreneurs' firm performance. Drawing on the family embeddedness perspective, findings show that both factors are positively related to firm perfor...