The relationship between innovation and internationalization in family firms: past research and future challenges

Innovation is a key driver of firms’ international growth, which in turn positively influences innovation activities and then firms’ performance. Many authors have tried to identify and explain the relationship between innovation and internationalization at the firm level. To date, few empirical studies have investigated it at a regional level. Moreover, the literature has focused only on one direction of causality, while scant attention has been paid to empirically inspecting innovation and internationalization together. This chapter provides a review of the literature on the mutual connection of these two strategic choices, taking into account the potential role of family firms in disentangling such a relationship