'With our feet on the ground and our minds free to fly': multiple embeddedness and entrepreneurial orientation in small and medium-sized family businesses

Based on a qualitative multiple-case study, this article focuses on the effect that multiple embeddedness—that is, both local and family embeddedness—has on the intrepreneurial orientation of small and medium-sized family businesses. The study’s results indicate that whereas local embeddedness influences small family businesses’ entrepreneurial orientation, especially in terms of their adherence to local customs and traditions and attention to local legitimisation, family embeddedness exerts particular influence on their adherence to family history and their replication of family rules and roles within the firm. The varying extents to which local embeddedness and family embeddedness manifest in the sampled businesses suggest four types of entrepreneurial behaviours: prudent, conservative, brave and pioneering.