Management Accounting Systems in New Zealand Regional Family Businesses: Organisational Identity and Strategic Alignment

Abstract

This paper explores how and why some small and medium size family businesses can survive in an environment that is full of uncertainties. We content that family businesses have an inherent resilience, constructed through its organisational identity that may render continuous competitive advantages and enable family businesses to meet the challenges and to take the opportunities embedded in turbulent conditions. Based on thirteen interviews of family businesses’ owners and managers, we found that the constitution of family business as an organisational identity denotes the strategic choices.