Family Business Groups in India: Perspectives on Their Roles, Strategies, and Innovations

The rise and dominance of business groups in the emerging economies have been so far described by the institutional void logic. However, this undermines the internal strengths and motivations possessed by the business families that control the majority of such business groups in many countries like India. In this chapter, we introduce the family logic behind the persistence of family business groups and show how family-level interests can also drive strategic choices including innovations. We take help of different cases from the Indian context to illustrate this perspective and conclude that family business groups would continue to thrive even if the institutional environment improves.