Strategic management is different in family firms. In these organizations, a family exercises significant influence over the firm’s crucial decision making processes and choices (Chua, Chrisman & Sharma, 1999). The uniqueness of family business revolves around the important influence of family in terms of determining the firm’s vision and control mechanisms, and the creation of unique resources, capabilities and management action patterns (Chrisman, Steier & Chua, 2008; Chua, Chrisman & Sharma, 2009; Sharma, 2004). This family influence makes the family business unique as it creates patterns of goals, strategies and structures that are often formulated, designed, and implemented in ways that can be radically different from non-family firms. These differences may result in either positive or negative effects on organizational outcomes such as competitive advantage and financial performance (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2006), non-financial performance and the preservation of socioemotional wealth (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007; Zellweger & Nason, 2008), environmental stewardship (Berrone et al., 2010; Sharma & Sharma, 2011), and diversification decisions (Gomez-Mejia, Makri & Larraza-Kintana, 2010; Miller, Le Breton-Miller, & Lester, 2010). To better capture this uniqueness, this chapter reviews current research on strategy in family business contexts, illustrating the main strategic issues addressed by the existing literature, and potential future extensions. The chapter includes a discussion of the key features of strategy in family businesses, of the potential sources of competitive advantage and disadvantage, and of different aspects of the strategic development process, and it is informed by previous similar efforts at reviewing and conceptualizing the family business strategy literature (Chrisman, Chua & Sharma, 2005; De Massis, Sharma, Chua & Chrisman, 2012; Dyer & Sanchez, 1998; Sharma, 2004; Sharma, Chrisman & Chua, 1997). The chapter also includes an illustration of the potential of a set of previously unused frameworks in understanding strategy and a future research agenda. The chapter is structured along six sections: 1) a description of the method that was followed to single out the sample of 77 family business strategy scientific works on which the chapter is grounded; 2) an overview of the key contents, theoretical approaches, methods and outcome variables in family business strategy research, as emerging from the representative sample of studies; 3) a description of the key features of family firms that make their strategic choices, processes and outcomes different; 4) an illustration of key strategic contents as emerging from the extensive literature review, with a focus on growth in and around the founder’s core business; 5) a focus on corporate and portfolio strategies of diversification; 6) a concluding section including directions for future research.

Strategic content and process in family business

SALVATO, CARLO;CORBETTA, GUIDO GIUSEPPE
2014

Abstract

Strategic management is different in family firms. In these organizations, a family exercises significant influence over the firm’s crucial decision making processes and choices (Chua, Chrisman & Sharma, 1999). The uniqueness of family business revolves around the important influence of family in terms of determining the firm’s vision and control mechanisms, and the creation of unique resources, capabilities and management action patterns (Chrisman, Steier & Chua, 2008; Chua, Chrisman & Sharma, 2009; Sharma, 2004). This family influence makes the family business unique as it creates patterns of goals, strategies and structures that are often formulated, designed, and implemented in ways that can be radically different from non-family firms. These differences may result in either positive or negative effects on organizational outcomes such as competitive advantage and financial performance (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2006), non-financial performance and the preservation of socioemotional wealth (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007; Zellweger & Nason, 2008), environmental stewardship (Berrone et al., 2010; Sharma & Sharma, 2011), and diversification decisions (Gomez-Mejia, Makri & Larraza-Kintana, 2010; Miller, Le Breton-Miller, & Lester, 2010). To better capture this uniqueness, this chapter reviews current research on strategy in family business contexts, illustrating the main strategic issues addressed by the existing literature, and potential future extensions. The chapter includes a discussion of the key features of strategy in family businesses, of the potential sources of competitive advantage and disadvantage, and of different aspects of the strategic development process, and it is informed by previous similar efforts at reviewing and conceptualizing the family business strategy literature (Chrisman, Chua & Sharma, 2005; De Massis, Sharma, Chua & Chrisman, 2012; Dyer & Sanchez, 1998; Sharma, 2004; Sharma, Chrisman & Chua, 1997). The chapter also includes an illustration of the potential of a set of previously unused frameworks in understanding strategy and a future research agenda. The chapter is structured along six sections: 1) a description of the method that was followed to single out the sample of 77 family business strategy scientific works on which the chapter is grounded; 2) an overview of the key contents, theoretical approaches, methods and outcome variables in family business strategy research, as emerging from the representative sample of studies; 3) a description of the key features of family firms that make their strategic choices, processes and outcomes different; 4) an illustration of key strategic contents as emerging from the extensive literature review, with a focus on growth in and around the founder’s core business; 5) a focus on corporate and portfolio strategies of diversification; 6) a concluding section including directions for future research.
2014
9780857023636
L. Melin, M. Nordqvist, P. Sharma
The Sage Handbook of Family Business
Salvato, Carlo; Corbetta, GUIDO GIUSEPPE
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11565/3745454
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