The strategic realignment of paradoxical family and business goals in family business: A rhetorical history perspective

Pecis, Lara, Ge, Bingbing and Bauer, Florian 2024. The strategic realignment of paradoxical family and business goals in family business: A rhetorical history perspective. Business History 10.1080/00076791.2024.2317938

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Abstract

Family firms are paradoxical by nature due to the interplay of two distinct goal systems: the family and the firm. These systems involve nested tensions that can create apparent paradoxes over time. Taking a rhetorical history lens, we explore how family firms can dynamically produce temporal equilibria between goal systems through the strategic use of history. Empirically, we investigate the emergence and development of two apparent paradoxes unfolding through the history of the growth of Alpha, an Italian family firm in the packaging industry. Our findings suggest that rhetorical history can alleviate the tensions emergent from the paradoxical goal systems of family businesses. Our research provides a unique contribution by revealing the emergence and agentic process of the co-construction of rhetorical history, which involves multiple agencies from both family and non-family employees. Moreover, such co-created rhetorical history can dynamically produce temporal equilibria in family business’s persistent paradoxical goal systems.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	0007-6791
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 March 2024
Date of Acceptance:	7 February 2024
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2024 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166329

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