Purpose
Absorptive capacity is a key competitive advantage and is defined as the capacity to absorb knowledge from the environment. Although some studies have examined how various antecedents to absorptive capacity differ between family firms and non-family firms, no studies have set out to specifically analyze absorptive capacity in the context of family firms. This paper discusses the ability of family firms to absorb external knowledge by analyzing the relationship between “familiness” and “absorptive capacity”.
Design/methodology/approach
By reviewing and combining studies on absorptive capacity and knowledge-management practices of family firms, new insights into the absorptive capacity of family firms are developed.
Findings
It is argued that due to higher levels of social capital, familiness is positively related to the ability to transform and use external knowledge (i.e. realized absorptive capacity). However, firms with high levels of familiness are likely to be inferior in acquiring and assimilating external knowledge (i.e. potential absorptive capacity).
Originality/value
Although previous studies have analyzed various knowledge-management practices of family firms, no studies have set out to specifically explore how familiness affects various dimensions of absorptive capacity.
This article aims to increase the understanding of the role of individual actors and arenas in dealing with multiple institutional logics in family firms.Design/methodology/approachThis study follows a case-study approach of two family-owned newspaper companies. Based on interviews and secondary sources, the empirical material was analysed focussing on three institutional logics, that is, family logic, management logic and journalistic logic.
First, the authors show how and in which arenas competing logics are balanced in family-owned newspaper companies. Second, the authors highlight that family owners are central actors in the process of balancing different institutional logics. Further, they analyse how family members can become hybrid owner-managers, meaning that they have access to all institutional logics and become central actors in the balancing process.
The authors reveal how multiple institutional logics are balanced in family firms by including formal actors and arenas as additional lenses. Therefore, owning family members, especially hybrid owner-managers, are the best-suited individual actors to balance competing logics. Hybrid owner-managers are members of the owner families who are also skilled in one or several professions.
Purpose: This paper highlights the need for future studies researching the subject of resilience in family firms on different levels. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviews the literature on resilience in family businesses. Findings: Resilience has become more important due to the recent multiple crises, starting with the coronavirus pandemic, followed by high inflation and energy prices, partly resulting from the war in Ukraine. These multiple crises affect the family and the business level. Future research must account for multiple levels when addressing it, i.e. the individual, the team, the family, and the business level. Resilience has to encompass all levels to sustain family business continuity. Originality/value: By giving an overview of the concept of resilience, taking the family's perspective, and suggesting future avenues of research, the paper contributes to the development of family business research.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how the family firm identity is affected when it is no longer publicly communicated. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach was used to follow a third-generation family business, a large Swedish home electronics firm that acquired a competitor and, initially, continued using its family firm identity after the acquisition. This study longitudinally tracks the company and its owning family using archival data combined with interviews. Findings: The case company decided to stop communicating their identity as a family business. Such a move initially appears counterintuitive, since it potentially threatens the family firm identity and leads the firm to forgo other advantages, e.g. in branding. However, the decision was based on arguments that were rational from a business perspective, leading to a decoupling of family and firm identity. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by showing a decoupling of internally experienced and externally communicated identities. It further contributes to the understanding of the family firm identity concept.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the verbal content and its impact on panel-basedbusiness advice meetings (springboards) for family business owners and startup entrepreneurs. Further,the study also investigates how panel-based advising assists entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approach – The investigated springboards concern family business owners whorun established firms and startup entrepreneurs who are applying for venture capital. Data from 12 differentspringboards are collected and studied by content analysis.Findings – The outcomes indicate that advising is more constructive for the family business owners than forthe startup entrepreneurs. This can mainly be explained by the rational screening that follows the businessplan concept and group dynamics which appear in these meetings.Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted in Sweden and concerns Swedish familybusiness owners and startup entrepreneurs. It reveals different speech patterns that appear during organizedadvice-giving and its implications depending on the type of entrepreneur.Practical implications – This study provides potential input to change the institutional practice ofpanel-based business advice, which will likely support entrepreneurs in their business development andnetwork building.Originality/value – This study is the first to investigate the verbal content in panel-based business advicefor family business owners. Further, it provides a deeper understanding of the institutionalized conditionsthat this kind of advising builds on.
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand venture capital family businesses (VCFBs) governance of portfolio companies through the deal process.
Design/methodology/approach – This study applies a theory-developing approach. A model of VCFB governance is developed whose key aspects are illuminated by four examples (cases) of VCFBs.
Findings – Recent research suggests that a venture capital firm’s corporate deal processes can be divided intothe pre-deal, deal and post-deal phases. Based on the age, size and succession dimensions, propositions for how a governance trajectory develops for VCFBs, affecting the deal process of target family firms (TFFs), are presented. These propositions highlight how the family owners’ actions and behavior are related to VCFB governance, which in turn, influences the three phases involved in making an investment.
Originality/value – The propositions suggest how personal and administrative VCFBs’ governance of the deal process of portfolio companies is significantly affected by centrifugal and centripetal forces that drive the respective types of governance where third-generation family owners appear as changers of governance approach.
Purpose – This paper addresses the phenomenon of venture capital firms which are also family businesses(VCFBs). The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the phenomenon of VCFB by answering thefollowing questions: What are the features of professionalization in VCFBs? And, how do professionalizationand types of family businesses explain the strategies and governance of VCFBs?Design/methodology/approach – As an explorative case study, it maps the Swedish venture capital (VC)industry and compares two VCFBs and their business investments with regard to strategy and governance.Findings – By suggesting two major configurations, the study explains how family business developmentand levels of professionalization relate to differences in VCFBs’ strategies, which in turn, affect theirgovernance. The personal VCFB features active owners who personally take responsibility roles and stronglyfocus on customers and relationships. The administrative VCFB strongly focuses on predetermined financialmetrics, high ethical awareness among board members, and ongoing interplay between the active familyboard members and minority shareholders.Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted in Sweden and concerns Swedish VCFBs.The paper contributes to the literature by combining the two currently separate research streams, i.e. familybusiness and VC, highlighting the importance and consequences of family ownership in VC businesses.Practical implications – The present study provides stock market investors and stock analysts with adeeper understanding of VCFBs’ strategy incentives. By identifying the kind of VCFB and its relation tostrategy, more reasonable assessments and analyses of the VCFBs’ actions will be possible. Family firms willingto accept VC-finance should consider the type of VC and the potential consequences of family ownership.Originality/value – This study is the first to classify VC firms as family businesses. Moreover, it shows thefeatures of professionalization in VCFBs by suggesting a set of configurations.
Purpose: This paper strives to understand the role of resource orchestration (RO) in the rapid growth of high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: Based on a comparative case study, RO is compared between a high-tech family firm and a high-tech non-family firm. To capture the complexity of RO, this study applies a longitudinal approach using a large volume of archival and interview data gathered over ten years. Findings: The configuration of family-firm paradoxical growth-oriented RO emphasizes RO based on collectivism and responsibility, although relying on large-scale conforming normative control. In contrast, the configuration of non-family-firm growth-oriented RO emphasizes administrative-based delegation and management-supported value creation. Originality/value: By suggesting ownership-based RO configurations, this study provides insights into how ownership types, i.e. family firms and non-family firms, affect RO in firms operating in complex and dynamic environments. These configurations explain how and why RO is arranged in a growth context.
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of communities of practice (CoP) as knowledge-sharing tools in family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this context, CoPs that jointly involve family and non-family members are expected to act as knowledge-sharing tools. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs a multiple case study methodology, analysing the cases of six small companies in different sectors and countries over a period of 8 years. Both primary and secondary data are used. Findings: The results show the role CoPs play in involving family and non-family members in empowering knowledge-sharing initiatives. A CoP's role in knowledge sharing depends on the presence (or lack) of a family leader, the leadership approach, the degree of cohesion around shared approaches and values within the CoP, and the presence of multiple generations at work. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing in family businesses, by exploring for the first time the role of the CoP as a knowledge-sharing tool, depending on families' involvement in the CoP.