Universities, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, and Family Business Performance: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Recently, the topic about ecosystems and universities has raised interest among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. This paper explores the impact of the entrepreneurial ecosystem on family business performance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the moderating effect of universities in these relationships. To find out these relationships, a questionnaire was distributed to 350 family businesses that operate in the UAE, yielding a sample of 321 replies (responding rate of 91.7%). Structural equation modeling with partial least squares analysis (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the measurement and the structural model. Findings show that all entrepreneurial ecosystem pillars have a positive impact on the family business performance, while universities do not moderate the relationship between ecosystem and performance. A conceptual model, implications, limitations, and future research avenues are provided as well.