In a Family Way? A Model of Family Firm Identity Maintenance by Non-Family Members

Julia VINCENT Ponroy, Patrick Lê and Camille Pradies

No 2019-015, Working Papers from Department of Research, Ipag Business School

Abstract: Focusing on the case of a successful French pharmaceutical family firm ? VetCo, we develop a process model of family firm identity maintenance by non-family members. Being the first family-owned pharmaceutical actor exclusively dedicated to animal health worldwide, VetCo has a strong family firm identity. The maintenance of this identity is remarkable, as VetCo experienced a withdrawal of the owning family when its founder suddenly passed away and, later on, when other family members disengaged from operations. Using grounded theory, we build a process model of identity maintenance that emphasizes meaning multiplicity. Specifically, we identify three main mechanisms of meaning preservation ? passing on the family legacy, unifying the metaphorical family, and modeling the family business ? and two mechanisms of meaning connection ? holding on and bridging. In elaborating theory on family firm identity maintenance, this study contributes to family business and organizational identity scholarships.

Keywords: null (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2019-01-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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