Managing Traditions: A Critical Capability for Family Business Success

Call for Papers for the 2023 Family Business Review (FBR) Special Issue on History-informed Family Business Research

“…Yet, family businesses remain dominant in any economy (La Porta et al, 1999), many of them are highly innovative (De Massis et al, 2018), resilient to crises, and equipped with the stamina to pursue entrepreneurial projects over generations (Jaskiewicz et al, 2016; Sinha, Jaskiewicz, Gibb, & Combs, 2020). The latter is consistent with emerging research suggesting that the history and traditions of families and their businesses do not have to be a rigid burden but, in some cases, can be a holy grail for enduring innovation and change (Erdogan et al, 2020; Jaskiewicz, Combs, & Ketchen, 2016; Suddaby & Jaskiewicz, 2020).…”

“…While researchers thus recognize the paradoxical nature of the family business as an organization that can be burdened or empowered by history, theory on how history actually ties into family business’ tradition, change, and aspiration remains scarce (De Massis, Frattini, Kotlar, Messeni Petruzzelli, & Wright, 2016; Erdogan et al, 2020; Sinha et al, 2020; Suddaby, Coraiola, Harvey, & Foster, 2020; Suddaby & Jaskiewicz, 2020). One reason for this unsatisfactory status quo is the weak connection between history and family business scholarship that has limited current understanding of what family business scholars can learn from the wealth of history and historical research, and how they can integrate related learnings in the study of family business (e.g., Colli, 2003; Colli & Fernandez Perez, 2020).…”

The Psychological Foundations of Management in Family Firms: Values, Biases, and Heuristics

“…Finally, our framework (see Figure 1) calls attention to values and memories as common elements of personal and family background. The constant stimuli from family dynamics interiorize the family’s values (Arregle et al, 2007) and metaphors (Tognazzo & Neubaum, 2020), and the longevity of family firms is likely related to their “capacity to successfully manage the creation, maintenance, and intergenerational transmission of traditions” (Suddaby & Jaskiewicz, 2020, p. 234). Additionally, family memories, along with personal memories, affect how family members construe reality and build ideas, motivations, and reasoning (Zellweger et al, 2013).…”

The effect of ownership and management structure on family businesses performance

“…Family businesses are the most dominant form of business (Johansson et al, 2020;Nordqvist & Gartner, 2020;Poza & Daugherty, 2020;Suddaby & Jaskiewicz, 2020). As the most common form of business organization in the world, family-owned or -controlled businesses account for over 80% of all firms, 12% of GDP, and 15% of the workforce in the United States (Lee, 2006).…”