The role of familiness for family business innovativeness

Abstract

The interplay between the business and the family from an innovativeness-perspective seems to be a promising field for family business scholars. Nonetheless, research on the relation between familiness and innovativeness is underdeveloped. This paper aims at overcoming this deficit by targeting the question how the familiness of a specific family business impacts its innovativeness. In doing so, a systems theory-based view is employed and the case study design follows a longitudinal qualitative approach. Results of objective hermeneutic analyses show that familiness plays an important role in establishing and maintaining a high innovativeness. Furthermore, the case highlights the importance of the alignment of employees with the family’s innovative visions. Additionally, findings reconstruct the role of the family in innovation from a process as well as from an outcome perspective. Systems theory allows for the location of familiness in the coupling of family and business systems, where familiness supports the transportation of norms and values from the family system into the business system.