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System‐Spanning Values Work and Entrepreneurial Growth in Family Firms
Author(s) -
Raitis Johanna,
Sasaki Innan,
Kotlar Josip
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/joms.12653
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , underpinning , family business , work (physics) , value (mathematics) , business , marketing , creating shared value , industrial organization , economic geography , classical economics , management , economics , public relations , political science , corporate social responsibility , finance , mechanical engineering , civil engineering , machine learning , computer science , engineering
Culture and values are key drivers of corporate entrepreneurship in early stages of family firm development, but value conflicts often arise over time that progressively inhibit their entrepreneurial efforts. How can family firms reconcile conflicting values to sustain corporate entrepreneurship over time? Our 45‐year longitudinal case study of a large global family firm shows that family business leaders’ practices of invoking and flexibly using family and business values were crucial to achieve sustained entrepreneurial behaviour and growth over an extended period of time. We theorize these efforts as system‐spanning values work enfolding through specific family, business, and temporal mechanisms. By identifying and elucidating three types of values work (i.e., rooting, revitalizing, and spreading), our study advances current understanding of the micro‐foundations underpinning the relationship between values and entrepreneurship in family firms.