Strategic change in family firms: antecedents and consequences of strategic change from a change readiness perspective
Abstract
In order to survive, closely held family firms face a mounting pressure to adapt to rapidly changing competitive environments. However, many of these organizations are often found to be strategically inert and conservative to changes. A key question is under which conditions family firms can overcome inertial forces and reach successful strategic changes. Hereby we make a distinction between the initiation of strategic change (antecedents) and the implementation of strategic change (consequences). This project aims to reach four central scientific objectives which emerged from four important gaps in the literature. These objectives are summarized as follows:
- Cognition: we investigate how and when Management Control Systems (MCS) influence a family firm's knowledge management process in such a way that new strategies are discovered and initiated and subsequently successfully implemented.
- Affect: we examine how Socioemotional Wealth preservation, learning frames, team psychological safety and organizational learning culture impacts upon readiness for strategic change in family firms. We focus on the affective dimension and take a multilevel perspective (individual, group, organization).
- Governance structures: we examine the interactions between family firm's ownership, management and board and the influence of these interrelated family governance mechanisms on strategic change in family firms.
- Resources: we will investigate the role and impact of financing constraints in the strategic change process from a supply as well as demand side perspective. We will focus on alternative financing sources to initiate and implement strategic change and potential bottlenecks. We will also focus on intergenerational differences.
Funding
FWO SBO
Researchers
- Prof. dr. Ine Paeleman (promotor)
- Prof. dr. Eddy Laveren (promotor)
- Tristan De Blick