IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/fambus/v10y2019i4s1877858517301018.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reaping what you sow: The family firm innovation trajectory

Author

Listed:
  • Dieleman, Marleen

Abstract

This study sheds more light on the ‘ability-willingness paradox’, which argues that family firms may be more able but less willing to engage in innovation. Using a longitudinal case study, we investigate the influence of family governance attributes during different stages of innovation and suggest that family entrepreneurship facilitates the conversion of innovation inputs to outputs. Family governance attributes (control, monitoring and networking) support innovation activity during some phases, but impede it during others. We also found the reverse: accumulated innovation capabilities influence family firm governance practices such as monitoring behaviour and control, especially when later-generation family members join the firm. These outcomes partially resolve the conflicting outcomes of prior studies and lead to useful propositions that can redirect future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Dieleman, Marleen, 2019. "Reaping what you sow: The family firm innovation trajectory," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:fambus:v:10:y:2019:i:4:s1877858517301018
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfbs.2018.03.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877858517301018
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfbs.2018.03.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. De Clercq, Dirk & Belausteguigoitia, Imanol, 2015. "Intergenerational strategy involvement and family firms’ innovation pursuits: The critical roles of conflict management and social capital," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 178-189.
    2. Arie Y. Lewin & Henk W. Volberda, 1999. "Prolegomena on Coevolution: A Framework for Research on Strategy and New Organizational Forms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(5), pages 519-534, October.
    3. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Kraft, Kornelius, 2009. "Capital control, debt financing and innovative activity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 372-383, August.
    4. Veider, Viktoria & Matzler, Kurt, 2016. "The ability and willingness of family-controlled firms to arrive at organizational ambidexterity," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 105-116.
    5. Le Breton-Miller, Isabelle & Miller, Danny & Bares, Franck, 2015. "Governance and entrepreneurship in family firms: Agency, behavioral agency and resource-based comparisons," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 58-62.
    6. O'Reilly, Charles A., III & Tushman, Michael L., 2013. "Organizational Ambidexterity: Past, Present and Future," Research Papers 2130, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    7. Wendy K. Smith & Michael L. Tushman, 2005. "Managing Strategic Contradictions: A Top Management Model for Managing Innovation Streams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 522-536, October.
    8. Lin-Ching Hsu & Hae-Ching Chang, 2011. "The Role of Behavioral Strategic Controls in Family Firm Innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(7), pages 709-727, October.
    9. Hauck, Jana & Prügl, Reinhard, 2015. "Innovation activities during intra-family leadership succession in family firms: An empirical study from a socioemotional wealth perspective," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 104-118.
    10. Fletcher, Denise & Massis, Alfredo De & Nordqvist, Mattias, 2016. "Qualitative research practices and family business scholarship: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 8-25.
    11. Robert A Burgelman, 2011. "Bridging history and reductionism: A key role for longitudinal qualitative research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(5), pages 591-601, June.
    12. Marc-Michael H. Bergfeld & Felix-Michael Weber, 2011. "Dynasties of innovation: highly performing German family firms and the owners' role for innovation," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 13(1), pages 80-94.
    13. Burgelman, Robert A., 2011. "Bridging History and Reductionism: A Key Role for Longitudinal Qualitative Research," Research Papers 2045r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    14. Block, Joern H., 2012. "R&D investments in family and founder firms: An agency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 248-265.
    15. De Massis, Alfredo & Kotlar, Josip, 2014. "The case study method in family business research: Guidelines for qualitative scholarship," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 15-29.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arzubiaga, Unai & Diaz-Moriana, Vanessa & Bauweraerts, Jonathan & Escobar, Octavio, 2021. "Big data in family firms: A socioemotional wealth perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 344-352.
    2. Canale, Fernanda & Müller, Claudio & Laveren, Eddy & Cambré, Bart, 2024. "The role of the family and the institutional context for ambidexterity in Latin American family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    3. Radácsi, László & Csákné Filep, Judit, 2021. "Családivállalkozás-kutatás longitudinális megközelítésben. Egy célzott szakirodalom-kutatás eredményei [Research into family businesses, based on a longitudinal approach. Results of a targeted over," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(S11), pages 108-125.
    4. Eddleston, Kimberly A. & Kellermanns, Franz W. & Collier, Gregory, 2019. "Research on family firm innovation: What do family firms actually think and do?," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4).
    5. Lin, Hsing-Er & Yu, Andy & Stambaugh, Jeff & Tsao, Chiung-Wen & Wang, Rebecca Jen-Hui & Hsu, I-Chieh, 2023. "Family CEO duality and research and development intensity in public family enterprises: Temporality as a model boundary," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    6. Scholes, Louise & Hughes, Mathew & Wright, Mike & De Massis, Alfredo & Kotlar, Josip, 2021. "Family management and family guardianship: Governance effects on family firm innovation strategy," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4).
    7. Szewczyk, Justin & Kurzhals, Christopher & Graf-Vlachy, Lorenz & Kammerlander, Nadine & König, Andreas, 2022. "The family innovator’s dilemma revisited: Examining the association between family influence and incumbents’ adoption of discontinuous technologies," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4).
    8. Marta Urbaníková & Michaela Štubňová & Viera Papcunová & Jarmila Hudáková, 2020. "Analysis of Innovation Activities of Slovak Small and Medium-Sized Family Businesses," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-19, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ivan Miroshnychenko & Alfredo De Massis & Danny Miller & Roberto Barontini, 2021. "Family Business Growth Around the World," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(4), pages 682-708, July.
    2. Canale, Fernanda & Müller, Claudio & Laveren, Eddy & Cambré, Bart, 2024. "The role of the family and the institutional context for ambidexterity in Latin American family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    3. Röd, Irina, 2016. "Disentangling the family firm’s innovation process: A systematic review," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 185-201.
    4. Rau, Sabine B. & Werner, Arndt & Schell, Sabrina, 2019. "Psychological ownership as a driving factor of innovation in older family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4).
    5. Cheung, Zeerim & Aalto, Eero & Nevalainen, Pasi, 2020. "Institutional Logics and the Internationalization of a State-Owned Enterprise: Evaluation of International Venture Opportunities by Telecom Finland 1987–1998," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    6. Arndt Werner & Christian Schröder & Simone Chlosta, 2018. "Driving factors of innovation in family and non-family SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 201-218, January.
    7. Hatak, Isabella & Kautonen, Teemu & Fink, Matthias & Kansikas, Juha, 2016. "Innovativeness and family-firm performance: The moderating effect of family commitment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 120-131.
    8. Francesco Chirico & Giuseppe Criaco & Massimo Baù & Lucia Naldi & Luis R. Gomez-Mejia & Josip Kotlar, 2020. "To patent or not to patent: That is the question. Intellectual property protection in family firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(2), pages 339-367, March.
    9. Francesca Maria Cesaroni & Gail Denisse Chamochumbi Diaz & Annalisa Sentuti, 2021. "Family Firms and Innovation from Founder to Successor," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Diéguez-Soto, Julio & Garrido-Moreno, Aurora & Manzaneque, Montserrat, 2018. "Unravelling the link between process innovation inputs and outputs: The moderating role of family management," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 114-127.
    11. Francesco Aiello & Lidia Mannarino & Valeria Pupo, 2024. "Family firm heterogeneity and patenting. Revising the role of size and age," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 105-133, June.
    12. Christina Matz Carnes & R. Duane Ireland, 2013. "Familiness and Innovation: Resource Bundling as the Missing Link," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(6), pages 1399-1419, November.
    13. Martin R. W. Hiebl & Barbara Mayrleitner, 2019. "Professionalization of management accounting in family firms: the impact of family members," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(5), pages 1037-1068, November.
    14. Anirvan Pant & J Ramachandran, 2017. "Navigating identity duality in multinational subsidiaries: A paradox lens on identity claims at Hindustan Unilever 1959–2015," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(6), pages 664-692, August.
    15. Lin, Hsing-Er & Yu, Andy & Stambaugh, Jeff & Tsao, Chiung-Wen & Wang, Rebecca Jen-Hui & Hsu, I-Chieh, 2023. "Family CEO duality and research and development intensity in public family enterprises: Temporality as a model boundary," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. Islam, Nazrul & Wang, Qidong & Marinakis, Yorgos & Walsh, Steven, 2022. "Family enterprise and technological innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 208-221.
    17. Hauck, Jana & Prügl, Reinhard, 2015. "Innovation activities during intra-family leadership succession in family firms: An empirical study from a socioemotional wealth perspective," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 104-118.
    18. Vanessa Diaz-Moriana & Eric Clinton & Nadine Kammerlander & G. T. Lumpkin & Justin B. Craig, 2020. "Innovation Motives in Family Firms: A Transgenerational View," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(2), pages 256-287, March.
    19. Anne Heider & Marcel Hülsbeck & Leopold Schlenk-Barnsdorf, 2022. "The role of family firm specific resources in innovation: an integrative literature review and framework," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(2), pages 483-530, June.
    20. Yuliya Snihur & Llewellyn D. W. Thomas & Robert A. Burgelman, 2018. "An Ecosystem‐Level Process Model of Business Model Disruption: The Disruptor's Gambit," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(7), pages 1278-1316, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:fambus:v:10:y:2019:i:4:s1877858517301018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/719791/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.