Unity or commitment: A generational view of innovation in family firms

Abstract

Taking a qualitative approach, this study aims to identify the effects of family involvement on firms' innovation decisions and examine how this relationship is affected by the presence or absence of firm founders. Content analysis facilitates building a map to identify two modes of family influence on business and innovation: the business-first and family-first modes. In the former, commitment and long-term orientation encourage innovation as the principal means of survival, especially when the founder is no longer present. In the latter, unity constrains innovation, most commonly in firms led by a present founder. In contrast to the tenets of the socioemotional wealth approach, a first-generation family firm may suffer from myopia when family interests prevail over the firm's interests, even when business continuity is at stake.