Practicing resilience in family firms : An investigation through phenomenography

Conz, E. and Lamb, P.W. and De Massis, A. (2020) Practicing resilience in family firms : An investigation through phenomenography. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 11 (2): 100355. ISSN 1877-8585

Text (Conz_et_al._2020_JFBS_in_press)
Conz_et_al._2020_JFBS_in_press.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
Download (981kB)

Abstract

Despite the growing interest in resilience in family business, the current literature overlooks the contribution of owners/managers in practicing resilience. We focus on the experiences and practices of owners/managers of family businesses, and apply phenomenography, an interpretive methodology, to capture variations in how owners/managers understand and practice resilience in longstanding Australian and Italian family wineries. The findings show that owners/managers’ resilience practices are determined by four qualitatively different understandings of resilience. Our understanding-based theory provides a novel interpretation of resilience in the family business field, challenging the rationalistic approach by demonstrating that resilience is not universal but multifarious, such that the owners/managers’ understanding of resilience determines how resilience is practiced.