Arist von Schlippe

The “family business brand”: an enquiry into the construction of the image of family businesses

Purpose – Family businesses (FBs) play an important role in economies across the world. FBs are consistently associated with specific attributes and expectations, which is something that points towards the notion that FBs can be regarded as a “brand” on their own. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether FBs have actually become a “brand” in the eyes of the wider population.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical investigation is based on the “Personal Construct Theory” (PCT), developed by George R. Kelly. According to this theory, human beings categorise and evaluate the world by building “personal constructs” that reflect their unconscious attitudes and value systems. To find out about the attitudes towards FBs, we used the “Nextexpertizer”® program, which exploits the PCT as a computer‐based survey instrument. Finally, these results are connected with two different brand theories: the identity‐oriented brand theory of Heribert Meffert and a sociological‐based understanding of brands. The stu...

Untangling ‘Familiness’ A Literature Review and Directions for Future Research

The influence of the family on business has been the subject of much debate, particularly with regard to the assumed familiness of family businesses. The term ‘familiness’ is at risk of becoming an umbrella concept and is often used haphazardly, lacking a solid theoretical background. This review provides a structured overview of the literature addressing the idea of familiness. Over the last 13 years, research on this key concept has grown continually, resulting in a broadening rather than a deepening of the concept of familiness. The results of the analysis of 33 manuscripts are presented and consolidated into three main categories: (1) theoretical perspectives; (2) the development and impact of familiness; and (3) empirical approaches. The analysis shows that existing research on familiness lacks the application of a universal theoretical lens. The authors counteract this shortfall by introducing new systems theory and presenting promising directions for further research, especially with regard to the development of a familiness typology.

The Anchoring Function: Parental Authority and the Parent‐Child Bond

Descriptions of parental authority and of the formation of a secure parent-child bond have remained unconnected in conceptualizations about parenting and child development. The parental anchoring function is here presented as an integrative metaphor for the two fields. Parents who fulfill an anchoring function offer a secure relational frame for the child, while also manifesting a stabilizing and legitimate kind of authority. The anchoring function enriches the two fields by: (1) adding a dimension of authority to the acknowledged functions of the safe haven and the secure base that are seen as core to a secure parent-child bond, and (2) adding considerations about the parent-child bond to Baumrinds classical description of authoritative parenting.

Family businesses: fertile environments for conflict

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative study with a twofold focus: on highly escalated family business (FB) conflicts and on the interactions between conflicts and the failure of the company as FB. The authors devoted this paper to the question of how family-related conflicts are connected with the demise of FB. Conflicts constitute an essential part of every FB and may definitely have the power to superimpose the performance of the FB as well as the family life in a destructive way. Especially, highly escalated so called relationship conflicts can be seen as one reason for the failure of FB. Design/methodology/approach – The research aims at analysing the meaning of conflict in FB with respect to the failure of the FB. Therefore, the authors use an explorative case study approach. The study is based on a total of five case studies. As the authors use theory of social systems as a theoretical background, the authors focused in the analysis in all cases on patterns rather than on i...

Storytelling and cultural family value Transmission : value perception of stories in family firms

This study analyses the transmission of cultural family values in family firms through storytelling. Specifically, we investigate whether cultural family values that are intended to be imparted by a story and its teller are also perceived accurately by listeners (i.e. the intended imparted value and the perceived value are congruent). We use a mixed-methods design including a qualitative phase, which identifies stories told in three German family firms, and a quantitative phase, which analyses the value perception (i.e. subjective cognition) of 226 individuals from outside the firm for a selected number of six stories. Results indicate that the intended values of the selected stories are perceived accurately by the individuals. Hence, stories might describe a useful means for transmitting cultural family values in family firms.