“What’s Past Is Prologue”

Abstract

Organizational researchers have long used imprinting as a theoretical lens for a historically embedded understanding of diverse, significant phenomena for explanatory, evaluative, and managerial purposes. The intuitive appeal of imprinting has facilitated its widespread diffusion throughout numerous disciplines and research fields, but the growing fragmentation of associated theory and evidence has blurred our understanding of the nature, sources, and mechanisms of imprinting as well as the context in which imprinting shapes the behavior and outcomes of distinct entities. To address these issues, we begin by developing a framework for generalizing theoretical constructs, statements, and relationships across levels of analysis, contexts, and disciplinary boundaries. Using the core themes of this framework, we next provide a systematic review of 119 imprinting studies allowing for more definitive statements about what we know, do not know, and should know about imprinting. Finally, by building on the review, together with the proposed framework, we chart a focused course for future inquiry and applications for organizational research on imprinting.

Culture, convention, and continuity: Islam and family firm ethical behavior

“…Although originally developed and applied in the context of industries and organizations, imprinting has been adopted across a wide range of theories, levels of analysis, and empirical contexts (Marquis & Tilcsik, 2013;Simsek, Fox, & Heavey, 2015). In family business research, imprinting, the "perspective that what happened to people and organizations during past crucial events holds a large sway on how they behave in the present and the future" (Kidwell, Eddleston, & Kellermans, 2018, p. 5), is typically used to explain new venture creation (Mathias et al, 2015); reactions to the death of one firm and the creation of another (Walsh & Bartunek, 2011); survival (Geroski, Mata, & Portugal, 2010); entrepreneurial legacy and innovation (Jaskiewicz et al, 2015); human resource management practices (Kidwell et al, 2018); intergenerational relationships (Pieper et al, 2015); transgenerational ownership and business family identity (Suess-Reyes, 2017); and firm culture, strategy, and decision-making processes (Stanley, 2010).…”

Thinking about industry decline: A qualitative meta-analysis and future research directions

“…We started our research with a broad list of keywords and databases. Moreover, we searched the identified citation patterns, 10 i.e. books and articles from the references of the analyzed books and articles.…”

Relationships between familiness, innovation and organizational performance in Polish family businesses

“…Moreover, until now, still little is known on how these relationships look like in the FBs operating in post-transition economies (post-communist European countries), characterized as relatively young free markets. It is acknowledged that the distinctive characteristics of firms operating in this region affect (modify) relationships between key organizational constructs significantly (Simsek, Fox, & Heavey, 2015). Thus, studying mutual relationships between familiness, innovation and organizational performance may help to shed light on these complicated relationships and gain knowledge on how these phenomena are intertwined in post-transition economy settings that differ from mature market economies.…”

“…Also, studies in the field suggest that the age of FBs (Price, Stoica, & Boncella, 2013) can 'loosen up' the relationship between the firm and the family and thus weaken familiness. It may be assumed that the influence of the family on the business in post-transition economy varies depending on the age because of socialist imprinted values (Simsek et al, 2015). In particular, older companies might be characterized by a higher level of family involvement (Han & Zheng, 2016), and this, in turn, might change the nature of the relationship between familiness and FB performance.…”