Abstract

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and severe and pose a threat to family firms' survival. It is important to address the rarely examined question of how the variables of socioemotional wealth importance (SEWi) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) interact to influence the performance of family businesses in a post disaster scenario. This study is based on a sample of 307 family businesses that suffered damage as a result of the 2010 earthquake in the Province of Concepcion, Chile. Comparative analysis was performed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The PLS-SEM results support all study hypotheses. The QCA results yield five models that explain post-disaster performance. The model with the greatest coverage includes the EO variables of competitive aggressiveness, internal innovativeness, and external innovativeness. However, SEWi is relevant in terms of its interaction with the rest of the variables in three of the five models.