Intergenerational strategy involvement and family firms’ innovation pursuits: The critical roles of conflict management and social capital

Abstract

This conceptual article centers on the relationship between intergenerational strategy involvement and family firms’ innovation pursuits, a relationship that may be contingent on the nature of the interactions among family members who belong to different generations. The focus is the potential contingency roles of two conflict management approaches (cooperative and competitive) and two dimensions of social capital (goal congruence and trust), in the context of intergenerational interactions. The article theorizes that although cooperative conflict management may invigorate the relationship between intergenerational strategy involvement and innovation pursuits, competitive conflict management likely attenuates it. Moreover, it proposes that both functional and dysfunctional roles for social capital might arise with regard to the contribution of intergenerational strategy involvement to family firms’ innovation pursuits. This article thus provides novel insights into the opportunities and challenges that underlie the contributions of family members to their firm's innovative aspirations when more than one generation participates in the firm's strategic management.