Intangible aspects of family involvement in family business : Knowledge management, history, and strategy authenticity

Ge, Bingbing and Campopiano, Giovanna and De Massis, Alfredo and Campopiano, Giovanna (2021) Intangible aspects of family involvement in family business : Knowledge management, history, and strategy authenticity. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

The overarching aim of this dissertation is to unfold the practices of family businesses looking at the role of family involvement in leveraging the intangible aspects that can lead to success over time. Investigating the role of knowledge, the use of history, and the authenticity of strategy, which I explores throughout my PhD journey, I offer a novel and relevant contribution to family business literature. This dissertation consists of five chapters, including a compilation of three individual papers that advance the debate on intangible resource in the family business field. In chapter 1, I introduce inspiration for my chosen research, and provide an overview of the three papers, which are included in chapters 2 to 4. In chapter 2, I present my first paper, a literature review of knowledge management in the succession process, co-authored with Dr. Giovanna Campopiano. This paper has been submitted to the Journal of Knowledge Management for the Special Issue for Family Business. It is at the stage of resubmission after the first review. Chapter 3 contains my second paper – Mining the Past: Scripted History and Competitive Advantage in a Family Venture, co-authored with Professor Alfredo De Massis and Dr. Josip Kotlar. This paper has been submitted to entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice. It is also at the stage of resubmission after the first review. Chapter 4 contains a third paper on strategy authenticity in a medium-sized family business. This paper aims at a strategy-related journal. In chapter 5, I summarize and conclude the achievements of my research. In addition, I explain my future research plan. This includes one of my draft paper about family practices, which was presented in a PhD workshop in Toulouse School of Management, as well as a grant I am applying for a project in the next three years to come.