Advisor familiness and entrepreneurial orientation in the tourism industry: the moderating role of entrepreneurs’ gender, education, and age

Countering the intuitive notion that family members contribute to the success of entrepreneurship in the tourism sector, we found that their involvement does not necessarily result in favourable outcomes from the angle of advice seeking. To uncover the effects of family members as advisors, we draw on the attention-based view of the firm to investigate the influence of advisor familiness on entrepreneurial orientation. We collected 447 valid responses from Chinese tourism entrepreneurs. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed a significant and negative effect of advisor familiness on entrepreneurial orientation. Significant moderating effects were also detected from entrepreneurs’ gender, education level and age. Specifically, entrepreneurs’ age enhanced the negative effect whilst entrepreneurs’ gender and education level attenuated the negative effect.