Advising in Family Firms: Shaping Relational Dynamics and Trustful Connections in Strategy Work

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore strategy advisors’ actions and interactions with family actors and nonfamily managers for strategy work in family businesses. By combining the strategy-as-practice perspective with the concept of emotional engagement practices, we interpret the case of a family firm collaborating with an external advisor over a 15-year period. We add to prior studies by showing how advisors work to build trustful and emotional connections that shape relational dynamics within evolving spaces of strategic discussion. We highlight the implications for strategy work, which change as relational dynamics develop over time.

Legal Advisors and Family Business Owners: A Transaction Cost Understanding of “the Ownership Contract”

“…These “most trusted advisors” can serve an important role as mediators. They can also help owners reconsider issues from new perspectives (Strike & Rerup, 2016), play an important role in strategy work (Quarchioni et al, 2022), and facilitate transfer to a new generation (Michel & Kammerlander, 2015). Without understanding the effect of the family system on the business system, both the advisor and the owners are prone to focus on technical solutions and ignore family aspects (Goodman, 1998, p. 351).…”

“…The role of advisors is identified as an important area for family business research (de Groote & Bertschi-Michel, 2021; Naldi et al, 2015; Quarchioni et al, 2022; Reay et al, 2013). The Family Firm Institute stresses that the needs of family businesses span several disciplines, most notably, business, social science, finance, and law, which calls for collaborative advisory teams (e.g., Cross & Sprenkle, 2006; Krasnow, 2019).…”

Family Owner–Nonfamily CEO Relational Practices Shaping CEO Succession: Handling Equivocality and Relational Balancing

“…For example, such close relations endow nonfamily CEOs with greater job satisfaction (e.g., Morris et al, 2010) and organizational commitment (Davis et al, 2010), which benefit their and the family firm's performance. The importance of good relations between family owners and nonfamily managers is also recognized in studies on family business advising (Quarchioni et al, 2022; Van Helvert-Beugels et al, 2020). Van Helvert-Beugels et al (2020) highlight the role of advisory boards in alleviating tensions between a family owner and a nonfamily CEO, and Quarchioni et al (2022) show that a content strategy advisor can first empower a nonfamily CFO to then promote openness to change in a family CEO, improving strategy discussions between the two.…”

“…The importance of good relations between family owners and nonfamily managers is also recognized in studies on family business advising (Quarchioni et al, 2022; Van Helvert-Beugels et al, 2020). Van Helvert-Beugels et al (2020) highlight the role of advisory boards in alleviating tensions between a family owner and a nonfamily CEO, and Quarchioni et al (2022) show that a content strategy advisor can first empower a nonfamily CFO to then promote openness to change in a family CEO, improving strategy discussions between the two. Thus, while family business researchers pay attention to relations and the influences “outside” actors (e.g., advisors) can have on them, the focus remains on the coming together of bounded individuals as separately existing entities having a relation in contrast to how ways of relating can generate stuckness or productive flow in relational realities.…”

“…Second, if we are to embrace the call from the family business domain to focus more on “relational dynamics” (Tabor et al, 2018; Quarchioni et al, 2022) and on how things become in unfolding processes (e.g., Dawson & Hjorth, 2012; Jaskiewicz et al, 2020; Murphy et al, 2019)—reflecting a shift from an ontology of being toward an ontology of becoming (Chia, 1995) and moving away from static, fixed, already-finished, and self-existent entities and their characteristics—we need a processual, relational practice alternative that can open up and explicate the “how” of ongoing relating (Hosking, 2011) in which family business relational realities (e.g., family owner and nonfamily CEO, and family owner–nonfamily CEO relations) are co-constructed. This article aims to develop and extend such a relational practice perspective, show what it can mean to do empirical work from this orientation, and suggest how doing relational practices research can evoke reflexivity and help to actualize new generative possibilities in family business organizing or world-making.…”