The internationalization of family-owned firms continues to draw the attention of international business (IB) and management scholars, who recognize their influence in the global economy. Often associated with limited resources and low risk appetite, the literature regards family firms as less internationally active. We build on the notion that family governance per se is not the main driver (or impediment) for family firm internationalization. We argue that there is substantial heterogeneity amongst family-owned firms, largely due to their business models. When studying how the adoption of ‘global high-quality niche business models’ enables internationalization, we focus on ‘specialist-supplier’ family firms, which provide high-quality intermediate goods to industrial clients (B2B). Through a qualitative multiple case study, we explain why ‘specialist-supplier’ family firms face idiosyncratic challenges due to product- and customer-related business model features, which overall impede, rather than facilitate, the exploitation of internationalization opportunities. By introducing the notion of customer-bound firm-specific advantages (CBFSAs), our study makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate on the role of high-quality niche business models in explaining family firm internationalization. We conclude with key managerial implications.
