Environmental jolts, family-centered non-economic goals and innovation:Toward a framework of family firm resilience

Campopiano, Giovanna and De Massis, Alfredo Vittorio and Kotlar, Josip (2018) Environmental jolts, family-centered non-economic goals and innovation:Toward a framework of family firm resilience. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Heterogeneity among Family Firms. Palgrave Macmilan, Cham, pp. 773-789. ISBN 9783319776750

Abstract

Building on extant research on family firm resilience, we propose a framework to discuss the impact of family-centered non-economic goals on a firm’s ability to absorb and react to environmental jolts. This chapter aims to advance current knowledge on the goal-related antecedents of innovation strategies in family firms by theorizing on how family firms approach slack resource deployment and choose between investments in closed vs. open innovation as a response to environmental jolts. Building on prospect theory assumptions about risk-taking behavior, we make a contribution to understanding heterogeneity of resilient family firms, which are spurred to innovate in light of the degree of relevance of pursued family-centered non-economic goals.