Abstract
Purpose The purpose of the study is to explore inductively the unique paradoxical tensions central to family business (FB) and to analyze how FB's members face these tensions and their implications in the personal and professional realms.Design/methodology/approachA multiple-case study with 11 parent–offspring dyads from Portuguese FBs was conducted putting the focus on the micro-level interactions.FindingsThe slopes of roles and relationality in FBs produces three persistent sets of tensions around cognition, emotion and action. These tensions exist in a paradoxical state, containing potentiality for synergy or trade-off.Originality/valueOur study is the first to empirically demonstrate that paradoxical tensions between parent and offspring are interrelated, by emphasizing the uniqueness of FB as a paradoxical setting and offering insights to negotiating of these singular paradoxes.
Highlights
Businesses (FB) are inherently characterized by a strong interdependence between family, ownership, and business sub-systems (Gersick et al, 1997)
Research broadly emphasizes that family business (FB) constitute a distinctive paradoxical context (e.g., Ingram et al, 2016; McAdam et al, 2020; Moores and Barret, 2002; Osnes et al, 2017) because problems in 1 one sub-system may jeopardize relations in the other sub-systems
This research explores inductively the unique paradoxical tensions central to family business, by answering the following research questions: what tensions do parents and their offspring face in the family business and what are their implications in the personal and professional realms? To answer these questions, we examined a multiple-case study involving 11 parent-offspring dyads from small FBs in Portugal, a country where about 56% of small- and medium-size enterprises are described as being family firms (Hernández-Linares et al, 2020)
Summary
Businesses (FB) are inherently characterized by a strong interdependence between family, ownership, and business sub-systems (Gersick et al, 1997). Our work addresses calls for collecting dyadic data (Wolff et al, 2020) to research how individuals from different generations perceive and respond to paradoxical tensions (Ingram et al, 2016) It addresses the FB scholars’ calls for focusing on the micro-level of scrutiny (e.g., Basco, 2017; De Massis and Foss, 2018) by empirically analyzing the paradoxical micro-foundations of the central relationship in FBs. Third, it addresses the FB scholars’ calls for focusing on the micro-level of scrutiny (e.g., Basco, 2017; De Massis and Foss, 2018) by empirically analyzing the paradoxical micro-foundations of the central relationship in FBs In this way our study reinforces the importance of dyadic relationships when examining FB phenomena at the micro-level (Campopiano and Rondi, 2019) and understanding better the roles played by parents and their offspring and how professional and personal issues are managed within the singular context of FB. An FB is only as good as its capacity to handle those paradoxes that are all inherent to such a unique context
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