Generational involvement in the top management team of family firms

Sciascia, Salvatore; Mazzola, Pietro; Chirico, Franscesco

doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2012.00528.x

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Journal article

Generational involvement in the top management team of family firms : exploring non-linear effects on entrepreneurial orientation

Sciascia, Salvatore IULM University, Italy
Mazzola, Pietro Jönköping International Business School, Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership—CeFEO, Sweden
Chirico, Franscesco Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera

2013

Published in:

Entrepreneurship theory and practice. - Wiley. - 2013, vol. 37, no. 1, p. 69–85

English The present study contends that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between generational involvement – i.e. the number of family generations simultaneously involved in the family firm top management team (TMT) – and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Drawing on the upper echelons theory, we conceive generational involvement as a proxy of knowledge diversity in multigenerational family TMTs. We argue that while moderate levels of generational involvement stimulate task-related constructive conflicts for EO, increased kinship distance and relationship conflicts led by high levels of generational involvement are likely to undermine this potential advantage by damaging the relational context for EO.

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