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Family Structure and Ownership Transition as “Polar Opposites”: An Emotional Embeddedness Perspective

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Spaces of Dissension

Part of the book series: Contradiction Studies ((COSTU))

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Abstract

Family businesses provide a fertile ground to study emotions as a source of contradiction. The embeddedness of a business in an owner family influences strategic decisions in a way that differs from decision-making in nonfamily firms, such as ownership transition choices. I apply an emotional embeddedness perspective to explain ownership transition choices, which contradict the prevailing means–ends logic in management research. The interplay of relational and emotional embeddedness can lead to ownership transition choices that contradict an instrumental logic of action. Repeated interactions between actors with different roles in a family business shape the quality of the family’s structure and its effect on important strategic outcomes. Although family structure might be conducive to internal ownership transition, this choice is not always the preferred option because of intervening conditions and the application of alternative action principles. Researchers in the field of Contradiction Studies should probe into situations in the management context, in which circumstances may favor the application of a means–ends logic but fail to do so, in order to enhance our understanding of contingencies that foster alternative action principles in economic action and interaction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Carolin Decker-Lange

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  1. Carolin Decker-Lange
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Correspondence to Carolin Decker-Lange .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Julia Lossau

  2. German Linguistics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Daniel Schmidt-Brücken

  3. German Linguistics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Ingo H. Warnke

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Decker-Lange, C. (2019). Family Structure and Ownership Transition as “Polar Opposites”: An Emotional Embeddedness Perspective. In: Lossau, J., Schmidt-Brücken, D., Warnke, I. (eds) Spaces of Dissension. Contradiction Studies. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25990-7_5

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