Organizational Capabilities for Family Firm Sustainability: The Role of Knowledge Accumulation and Family Essence

Ismael Barros-Contreras,Angel Torres-Toukoumidis,Jesús Manuel Palma-Ruiz

doi:10.3390/su13105607

Ismael Barros-Contreras, Angel Torres-Toukoumidis + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105607

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Abstract

While prior studies recognize the importance of organizational capabilities for family firm sustainability, current research has still failed to empirically identify the role of different types of knowledge accumulation with regard to these organizational capabilities. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory, the main goal of this paper is to address this research gap and to explore the relationships between both internal and external knowledge accumulation, and ordinary organizational capabilities. This research also contributes to analyzing the complex effect of the family firm essence, influenced by both family involvement and generational involvement levels, as an antecedent of internal and external knowledge accumulation. Our analysis of 102 non-listed Spanish family firms shows that the family firm essence, which is influenced by the family involvement, strengthens only the internal knowledge accumulation but not the external one. Furthermore, our study also reveals that both internal and knowledge accumulation are positively related to ordinary capabilities.

Highlights

The strategic management literature proposes that the development of firms’ dynamic capabilities is a crucial factor for a firm’s success and survival in the long term [1,2,3], especially in todays increasingly dynamic markets with a growing number of emerging global competitors [4]
Intending to compensate for the above-mentioned limitation, we focus on exploring how knowledge accumulation impacts the dynamic capabilities of family firms
The results indicate that as the family generations incorporate into the firm, the family essence deteriorates [91]; in effect, family altruism is eroded when the family grows and ownership is spread across the generations

Summary

Introduction

The strategic management literature proposes that the development of firms’ dynamic capabilities is a crucial factor for a firm’s success and survival in the long term [1,2,3], especially in todays increasingly dynamic markets with a growing number of emerging global competitors [4]. In this sense, dynamic capabilities enable firms to create, deploy and protect the intangible assets that support a superior business performance in the long term [5]. Except for some very well-known studies [8,9,10], this lack of research in such a specific type of organizations could be viewed as a considerable weakness of the field, since family firmsstrategy is usually described as based on considerably path-dependent abilities, having difficulties to adapt to fast-changing environments [10,11]

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