All the same but different: Understanding family enterprise heterogeneity

Abstract

We explore heterogeneity in family firms from its core antecedents: the presence of family and their pursuit of dual logics in decision-making and position servant leadership, stewardship, and trust as emanating core philosophies, which manifest in an organization-level (AGES) and individual-level (SAGE) framework, and ultimately skill-sets that are all unique to family firms but which also serve to differentiate within this class of firms. Our conceptual meta-model of family enterprise heterogeneity serves as a guide for family firms to identify and understand the perception versus reality of their heterogeneity, and then enables the development of strategies to maintain organizational culture and/or evaluate organizational change.