Family Enterprise and Context

Abstract

There has been increasing attention to the heterogeneity of family businesses but recognition of the heterogeneity of the contexts in which family firms operate is only now emerging. The articles and commentaries in this special issue contribute to the understanding of some of the institutional and organizational contexts in which family businesses operate and the impact of this variety on their behavior, strategies, and performance. We discuss the importance of context and questions for future research that deal with the interrelationships between different contexts and the behaviors of different types of family firms.

Qualitative research practices and family business scholarship: A review and future research agenda

“…Despite the increasing attention to the role of context in family business (e.g., Wright, Chrisman, Chua, & Steier, 2014), and despite acknowledgement of how industry variables have long dominated individual-, group-and organization-level variables in empirical studies of family business behavior, the underlying mechanisms through which the industrial sector shapes family business behavior and the micro-strategies, routines and capabilities through which individuals, families, organizations and industries interact in conducting business activity remain largely under theorized and little understood. Qualitative inquiry has the potential to guide future family business research toward a deeper understanding of industry-specific determinants, processes and outcomes of family business behavior.…”

How Family Business Members Learn About Continuity

“…Hence, we bring into question typical timeline assumptions surrounding the concept of legitimate peripheral participation and existing models such as the 4Ls framework (Moores & Barrett, 2002). Second, recent studies have called for more work to consider how context might influence family business (Wright, Chrisman, Chua & Steier, 2014). Learning has been described as an inherently social as well as an individual phenomenon (Tusting, 2005).…”

Time to recalibrate? Exploring entrepreneurial orientation of family businesses before, during, and after an environmental jolt

“…Research employing the behavioural agency model implicitly assumes socioemotional wealth and financial performance goals are negatively related in family businesses (Wright et al, 2014). However, recent research that takes a mixed gamble approach suggests that uncertain investments, such as R&D, carry both economic and non-economic (i.e., socioemotional wealth) risks (Gómez-Mejía et al, 2014).…”