Business success, especially for entrepreneurs who are just starting out, is often measured in terms of new venture growth. Unfortunately, this kind of growth can be hard to achieve for entrepreneurs who don’t have access to many resources.

Many daughters and sons growing up in a successful family business and who have their own entrepreneurial ideas struggle to become autonomous from the family’s business. Most research tends to examine how younger, next generation family members build their careers by engaging in internal venturing as a way of growing their existing family business. What is lacking here is research that looks at the ways in which these daughters and sons rely on external venturing, that is, to start their own business outside the existing family business, to achieve greater autonomy and pursue their independent business ideas.

The way that new ventures are financed is very important. It has substantial implications for a company’s survival, growth, and performance. For this reason, a lot of research exists that examines what explains startups’ choices of financing sources, typically drawing on rational economic theories such as pecking order or trade off theories.