Learning in a Family Business Through Intermarriage: A Rhetorical History Perspective

Abstract

We use concepts from rhetorical history and mnemonic communities to expand on the notion of “intermarriage” in a family business as the merger of shared histories among family members, nonfamily members, and individuals from other families and suggest that a common mnemonic narrative defines the parameters of the family business rather than the structural properties of the firm or the genetic relationships among family members. Our analysis reveals how fundamental family business practices can be changed when confronted with the intimate knowledge of the rhetorical history of the failure of others.

History-Informed Family Business Research: An Editorial on the Promise of History and Memory Work

“…As it moved through the next generation, it transformed into a statement of formal firm history. McAdam et al’s (2023) study reinforces Nora’s notion of memory as an effective resource for organizations that uses the dynamic between memory and history to convert socioemotional challenges into rational best practices. Moreover, the study demonstrates how the repetition and revision of the cautionary tale changed as it spread across time and across the increasingly dispersed set of family members, which the authors term a “community of cousins.” The observation that later generations were actively engaged with revising memories demonstrates the value of memory work in strengthening the new integrated family.…”

“…Yet the bulk of these studies focuses on the transplantation of identical policies, such as poison pills (Davis, 1991), acquisitions (Haunschild, 1993), or decision-making mechanisms (Westphal et al, 2001), across firms. McAdam et al’s (2023) study shows how the board role of a family member by marriage at one family firm led to deep knowledge transfer to a second firm and further points to the transformation of this knowledge into a different set of practices. Such detail speaks both to the process of diffusion and reinterpretation of experiences, and to the interorganizational family tie that facilitates this.…”

“…We see powerful examples of memory work in two articles in this special issue. In McAdam et al (2023), we observe how a strategic error borne from an emotional decision in one family firm is transformed from an embarrassing and painful memory to a historical cautionary tale across generations. In Gusenbauer et al’s (2023), family firms, bound by tradition, engage in memory work to unearth and repurpose technological knowledge embedded in old patents.…”

“…The concept of historical reflexivity appears explicitly in only one article in the special issue (i.e., McAdam et al, 2023). Historical reflexivity “recognises the everyday practice of histories.” “[It] is an iterative process of reflection in which people create nonchronological narratives of their past, present and future practices” (p. 2).…”

“…In both the Haag et al (2023) and the McAdam et al (2023) studies, it was a recombinant memory structure in the family firm—a “sibling consortium” in the former and a “community of cousins” in the latter—that generated a hyper-awareness of the significance of the past and a rational response that generated a positive outcome for each firm. These insights align with the well-established view that owner-managed firms transition to “sibling partnership” before becoming “cousin consortiums” (Gersick et al, 1996).…”