Handling Innovation in Small Family Firms: The Role of Context

Abstract

Innovation management in family firms is a paradoxical challenge. The constant tension between innovation and tradition confers to this topic a fascinating mystery area that calls to action scholarly efforts and further studies to underscore whether family firms are innovating or not. This debate becomes even more intriguing and interesting when family businesses are small-sized and embedded in local contexts strongly attached to traditions and cultures that inhibit change. Based on the curiosity of analyzing the innovation proclivity of small family firms rooted in such a context and building on previous studies that were focused on innovation in family run businesses, we deeply investigated two cases. Findings uncovered a twofold and opposite role of the context:  on the one hand, a constraint and, on the other hand, leverage of innovation. Interesting scholars and practical implications are discussed, and future studies are suggested.

“With our feet on the ground and our minds free to fly”: multiple embeddedness and entrepreneurial orientation in small and medium-sized family businesses

“…By definition, family businesses are fully owned and managed by members of the founding family with a clear intention to pass on the business onto their children (Aronoff & Ward, 2011;Chrisman et al, 2005Chrisman et al, , 2015Chua et al, 1999). We opted to examine family businesses because, on the one hand, they are strongly attached to their contexts of belonging (Baù et al, 2019;Floris, Dettori, et al, 2020a, 2020bRondi et al, 2018), and, on the other, their EO depends on the family's embeddedness (Aldrich et al, 2021;Aldrich & Cliff, 2003;Hahn et al, 2021;Mari et al, 2016). Beyond that, many studies have shown that family businesses possess a constellation of rules, norms (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003) and values (Binz- Astrachan et al, 2018) that stem from the owning family and strongly characterise the current business and influence their EO (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003;Pittino et al, 2017Pittino et al, , 2018.…”

The relationship between the use of technologies and digitalization strategies for digital transformation in family businesses

“…These questions are still evolving. It is noteworthy that the topic in Brazil is emerging, as the research context (family businesses) is little studied, thus, it is clear that these questions are still evolving, and as indicated by Floris et al . (2020) it is a context of relevant and timely analysis.…”