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Innovative firm behavior - understanding the role of family influence
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 June 2014
End Date
31 May 2016
Status
ongoing
Keywords
family firm
family business
innovation
R&D
Description
Innovation is a key driver of long-term success for organizations. Thus it is not surprising that researchers have long sought to understand enablers and impediments of innovation in firms and have aimed to gain a nuanced understanding of research and development processes with-in organizations. Yet much of this work has neglected the influence of the firm's owners on the respective organization's innovation behavior. Only recently, scholars have started to gain interest in innovation in a particular type of organization: family firms. Family firms are not only the dominant type of organization around the world, yet they have been also shown to substantially differ from non-family firms concerning, for instance, predominant goals, risk preferences, and available resources.First studies on innovation in family firms reveal that those firms differ, for instance in terms of search breadth, resources dedicated to R&D, and type of preferred innovation. Despite this growing understanding, an abundant number of research gaps remains and many of previous findings are not cumulative so far.
Leader contributor(s)
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Innovation in Family Firms
Method(s)
Conceptual
Quantitative
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Division(s)
Eprints ID
231255
5 results
Now showing
1 - 5 of 5
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PublicationType: work report
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PublicationSynthesizing so far disintegrated literature on leadership transfer: a co-citation analysis( 2015-06-05)
;Cabras, Stefano ;Dessi, Cinzia ;Floris, MichelaType: conference paper -
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PublicationExploration and Exploitation in Established Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: The Effect of CEOs' Regulatory Focus(Elsevier Science Publ., 2015-07-01)Based on theory of regulatory focus and organizational ambidexterity, we hypothesize that the level of engagement in exploration and exploitation in a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) is affected by the respective CEO's chronic regulatory focus. In our analysis of survey responses from CEOs in Switzerland, we find that the CEO's level of promotion focus positively affects the firm's engagement in both, exploration and exploitation, while the CEO's prevention focus is negatively associated with the firm's exploration but not significantly related to its exploitation. The positive associations between a CEO's promotion focus and the firm's exploration/exploitation activities are enhanced under conditions of intense competition.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of Business VenturingVolume: 30Issue: 4
Scopus© Citations 155 -
PublicationThe Impact of Storytelling on Innovation: a Multi Case Study(Academy of Management, 2015-01)
;Dessi, CinziaFloris, MichelaThe founder’s values and beliefs are often determinant for family business’ later organizational path and as such affect the organization’s level of innovation. Building on recent research that has identified storytelling as an important means to imprint the founder’s values and beliefs, we apply a multi-case research design to investigate how different foci of those stories affect a family firm’s level of innovation. We suggest that founder-centered stories entail a focus on decisions that match with the founder’s values, hierarchical decision-making, and destructive conflicts, which ultimately lead to low levels of innovation. To the contrary, family-centered stories free family members in their decision-making and entail a collaborative decision-making characterized by low levels of conflicts. As a result, those firms have higher levels of innovation as compared to firms with founder-centered stories. We summarize our findings in a model of path creation in family firms.Type: journal articleJournal: Academy of Management ProceedingsIssue: 1Scopus© Citations 1