Abstract:
Despite the importance and potential role of entrepreneurship for economies in Central and Eastern Europe, little attention has been devoted to identifying which factors contribute to the entrepreneurship in the region. The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, there is a comparison of entrepreneurial orientation in Bulgarian family and non-family firms. Second, there is an examination of which individual, organizational and environmental factors underlie differences in entrepreneurial orientation between family and non-family firms. The findings reveal that several organizational and environmental factors are conductive for pursuing entrepreneurship within family and non-family firms. Lower environmental dynamism, smaller firm size and the lack of foreign ownership account partially for lower entrepreneurial orientation in family firms. The paper provides a discussion of implications for practitioners and suggestions for future research.
