The extent to which a family controls and affects its firm has been recently acknowledged as a significant element to explain some of the inconclusive findings in the literature about internationalization of family firms (Calabro, Torchia, Pukall,
& Mussolino, 2013; Pukall & Calabro, 2014
). For instance, the level of sales internationalization in family firms is affected by external in- fluences in the board of directors (Sciascia, Mazzola, Astrachan, & Pieper, 2013). Thus, beyond the difference between family and non-family firms, family firms’ idiosyncrasies may differently affect the strategic behaviors and their consequences in terms of internationalization outcomes (Miller, Minichilli, & Corbetta, 2012). In particular, the degree of family involvement in ownership and management is acknowledged as a discriminating factor, so that any external influences on these systems in the family firm may have an impact on the strategic attitudes towards internationalization (Holt, 2012).

structure on its internationalization outcomes, meant in terms of both pace and performance (He & Wei, 2011; Vermeulen & Barkema, 2002), hypothesizing and testing the mediating effect of international entrepreneurial orientation (hereafter IEO). Internationalization is considered an entrepreneurial activity (Oviatt & McDougall, 2005), and international entrepreneurship e recognized as a stand-alone research field e is defined as “a combination of innovative, proactive, and risk-seeking behavior that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations” (McDougall & Oviatt, 2000, p. 903). This definition suggests that it is important to focus on the entrepreneurial qualities of firms and to investigate how firms compete after internationalization, more than understanding whether and how they enter global markets (Zahra, 2005). Nevertheless, scant literature has considered strategic orientations (Keupp & Gassmann, 2009) as antecedents of internationalization (Dess, Pinkham, & Yang, 2011); and, in particular, IEO at the firm level (Liu, Li, & Xue, 2011) may play a significant role, as it regards value-creation behaviors that, through proactive and innovative methods, make firms engage in risk-taking activities aimed at identifying and leveraging international opportunities (Sundqvist, Kylaheiko, & Kuivalainen, 2012) and in turn affect pace and performance (Etemad, 2015). Consistently with a call for further research on the role of board composition in ventures engaging in international entrepreneurship (Zahra, Filatotchev, & Wright, 2009), this study investigates to what extent IEO doesmediate the relationship between the involvement of non-family members in governance and the pace of internationalization and international performance.

For this purpose, we rely on resource dependence theory (Pfeffer, 1972; Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003) as a leading theoretical framework to analyze the influence of members from outside the owner-family, sitting in various governance bodies, as antecedent to firm internationalization. According to this theoretical perspective, we focus on board resource provision, which encompasses a variety of specific activities, including: (i) providing expertise and advice, (ii) linking the firm to important stakeholders, (iii) facilitating access to resources such as capital, (iv) building external relations, and (v) helping in strategy formulation (Hillman & Dalziel, 2003). Access to resources is, indeed, vital for successful firm internationalization, as venturing into foreign markets may pose specific resource challenges for family firms (Naldi, Nordqvist, Sjoberg, & Wiklund, 2007). While some family firms’ attributes can drive internationalization, e.g. commitment, long-term orientation and unique capabilities (Zahra, 2003), the dearth of resources can instead hinder the orientation of family firms towards international markets, due to the lack of either opportunity recognition or the capabilities to engage in internationalization efforts, that are acknowledged as relevant underpinnings for international entrepreneurship (Calabro, Brogi,
& Torchia, 2015; Muzychenko, 2008). Few managerial resources (Fernandez & Nieto, 2006), scarce financial resources (Okoroafo, 1999), and especially lack of knowledge concerning international markets (Pukall & Calabro, 2014
) are instances of factors hindering internationalization. Resource dependence theory suggests that connections with members from outside the organization are of paramount importance in order to gain access to those critical resources (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003). This study relies on the assumption that the firm’s governance structure is acting as the main bridge to external resources (Hillman & Dalziel, 2003; Hillman, Cannella, & Paetzold, 2000). The access to resources, that the owner-family sometimes cannot provide, is fundamental for business internationalization, and limits the dependency from national markets by opening the business to new opportunities abroad. The hypothesized model is tested via partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling on a sample of 113 German family firms (i.e., firms where one owner-family holds more than 50.1% of the firms’ shares, and the CEO perceives the firm as a family firm), collected in the summer of 2012. Our results indicate that high involvement of non-family members in governance positively affects family firms’ pace of internationalization; and that this relationship is mediated by the international entrepreneurial orientation of the firm. Overall, the results stress the importance of the involvement of non-family members in the governance of family firms, as their influence brings resources which limit dependencies and open the firm to new opportunities abroad.