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| Author(s): |
Fabio Matuoka Mizumoto
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2009-12-16 |
| Examining board members: |
Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes;
Fabio Ribas Chaddad;
Sérgio Giovanetti Lazzarini;
Moacir de Miranda Oliveira Júnior;
Decio Zylbersztajn
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| Advisor: | Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes |
| Abstract | |
The occurrence of disequilibrium in the economic environment imposes adjustments on a firms strategy and allocation of resources. The literature on strategy predicts the firms reaction to disequilibrium according to the existing set of resources, the competitive forces in the industry and the transaction-cost economizing mechanisms. However, these perspectives assume the homogeneous managerial ability, skills, and experiences of firms; in other words, there is no room for the entrepreneur. In fact, investigations on entrepreneurs rely on the risk-taking behavior, judgment processes related to cognitive mental models, and other concepts that are not directly observable. This doctoral dissertation proposes a framework based on human capital and social capital dimensions to connect the isolated strategy and entrepreneur theory. Moreover, the framework links the family business theory for its importance in the formation of human capital and social capital of firms. The empirical study investigated the strategy choice and entrepreneurial action of family farmers in Brazil. Specifically, it investigated the farmers who switched from the low-cost strategy to differentiation strategy in the coffee production context. The first study investigated the mechanisms of family influence on the formation of human capital and social capital. Human capital comprises the formal education and the experience inherited from family. The investigations on social capital focused the number of family ties and the relationship duration with the coffe buyer. The second study applied Probit, Tobit and Cox Models to estimate the probability of switching strategies in a 135 farmers sample. The third study introduced the governance decision in the investigation of strategy choice; to accomplish this objective, it was applied a Switching regression model to control for endogenous effects on governance and strategy decisions, in a 255 observations sample. The results indicated that entrepreneurs invest on education to better evaluate scenarios and take entrepreneurial action. Although previous studies had indicated a positive effect of experience inherited from family, the research findings suggested contingent effects. The experience inherited from family contributed to inertia in firm strategies. However, in interaction with social capital, the experience positively contributed to adoption of new strategies. Another important effect was that experience inherited from family enhanced the performance of differentiation strategy. The family social capital largely contributes to predict the entrepreneurial action. Specifically, the number of social connections enhanced the probability to switch strategy when exist contracts, moreover, suggested that socially connected people take advantages of cooperation to establish contracts, to refine its terms and to promote its stability. Enduring relationships supported the emergence of trust among agents, which enabled the decision to make specific investments even in the absence of protection arrangements. This research proposes an analytical model that evaluates human capital and social capital to predict entrepreneurial action and strategy choice. Furthermore, it proposes an analytical model to evaluate the positive family effects on business, which establishes the importance of education endowments and the transmission of social capital to future generations. This is the first research to theoretically debate and empirically test human capital and social capital arguments based on an integrated overview of family business, entrepreneurship and strategic management theory. (AU) | |