Preserving the longevity of long-lasting family businesses: a multilevel model

Abstract

Prior research lacks an understanding of how decision makers preserve longevity within family businesses. This study examines longevity under a microfoundational lens, through an interpretive qualitative research design. The selected cases are nine long-established Australian family wineries. The outcome is a multilevel grounded model of the preservation of family firm longevity that integrates the dual firm-family relationship with the individual level of decision makers. The model shows the role played by interactions among multiple levels of analysis — namely, the individual, the family and the firm — in preserving the longevity of the family business.

1 Introduction

Long-lasting family businesses — organisations owned by the same family and beyond the career span of their founders (Sharma & Salvato, 2013) — have been able to pass through eras of rapid change and exponential technologies. They have demonstrated to be incredibly resilient in times of crisis (Chrisman et al., 2011), especially compared to non-family-ones (Calabrò et al., 2021; Salvato et al., 2020). They changed to cope with turbulence and unexpected shocks like any other organisation, but they also stayed grounded on some pillars as a pivotal reference, that allowed them to survive over many generations. Long-lasting organisations have proved able to develop specific behaviours to cope with conditions of extreme uncertainty (Chrisman et al., 2011; De Massis et al., 2008; Santoro et al., 2021). The systematic literature review by Riviezzo et al., (2015a, 2015b) confirms that longevity has been widely and mostly explored at the “macro” level of analysis, focusing on aggregate concepts of macro-management, i.e., routines, capabilities, and capacities, rather than on key people that still manage the business (Sharma & Salvato, 2013). Nonetheless, according to microfoundational thinking firm behaviour is the aggregate outcome of the input of several individuals: it is their interaction that characterises the firm and its behavioural outcomes (De Massis & Foss, 2018). The methodological individualism proper of a microfoundational approach implies that the individual is the building block of a social theory (Arrow, 1994; Luckmann, 1966). Consistently with this school, the beliefs, characteristics, preferences, and interests of individuals, are the starting point when building a theory. The methodological point of microfoundations is about looking at lower-level units when explaining high-levels of analysis, at the origins and nature of the macro (Barney & Felin, 2013). Within the field of management, microfoundational approaches are applied to explore the foundations at the micro-level of organizational outcomes and the level of analysis is the organization. Accordingly, the actions and attitudes of micro-level entities, such as firm’s decision makers, owners, and managers, are critical to investigating firm level outcomes and exploring how organisational factors are influenced by individuals (Aguinis et al., 2015; Barney et al., 2013; Contractor et al., 2019; Distel, 2019, Foss & Lindenberg, 2013).

In response to the call for a specific microfoundational approach to family business analysis (ibid), this study examines family business longevity by looking at the intersection of different levels of analysis, especially focusing on the role of decision makers in preserving family business longevity. Specifically, we identified three gaps that support the need for a microfoundational approach to longevity. First, previous studies offer fragmented frameworks on family firm longevity, addressing business survival about risk-taking (Naldi et al., 2007), innovativeness (Craig & Moores, 2006), internationalisation (Fernández & Nieto, 2005), succession planning (Handler & Kram, 1988; Ibrahim et al., 2009; Fahed–Sreih & Djoundourian, 2006), and family values (Tàpies & Fernández Moya, 2012). Frequently, researchers invoke the 30/13/3 statistic (Ward, 1997) or the Buddenbrooks syndrome (Lorandini, 2015) to explain the inability of family firms to survive beyond the third generation, focusing only on factors and drivers at the firm level that lead to business failure. These macro-level studies overlook the micro-level mechanisms behind longevity and, especially, fail to identify the actors involved, their characteristics, the interactions between them, and how all these elements influence the set of strategies required to achieve and sustain longevity as an organisational outcome of a sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, macro level research on firm longevity, as confirmed by Riviezzo et al., (2015a, 2015b), focuses on single explanatory models and emphasises specific factors, i.e., external or organisational, but fails to explain the interconnections between the different levels of analysis and how and/of why the phenomenon of longevity occurs. Works that omit the micro level, as outlined by De Massis and Foss (2018), are problematic, because they may be wrong and incomplete in predicting macro level phenomena. Macro level perspectives do not take into due account intersections and mechanisms that produce firm level characteristics, behaviours and outcomes based on the characteristics, actions, and interactions of specific members of the organisation (Abell et al., 2007; Felin & Foss, 2005; Teece, 2007).

Secondly, widely adopted theories such as the stewardship perspective (Miller et al., 2008) or the Socio-Emotional Wealth approach (Berrone et al., 2012) argue that family firms’ decision makers prioritize business continuity due to deep connections between the family and the business, and an emotional attachment of family members to their business (Dunn, 1999; Lumpkin et al., 2008). Nevertheless, the great majority of studies that investigates the relationships between individual variables and firm’s outcomes are quantitative and explanatory in nature. They explain mediating and moderating effects of individual level variables as self-concept, self-esteem in firm outcomes (i.e., product, reputation and market development, performance), falling short in unveiling and describing the structure and anatomy of longevity.

Third, longevity studies are — for the most part — retrospective and longitudinal, looking at past strategies, factors or owners’ characteristics as predictors of the good survivability of the organisation (e.g. Burgelman et al., 2007; Lorandini, 2015; Zellweger et al., 2012). This view overlooks the role of current decision makers in preserving the business in an era of rapid change and increasing business failure. As a result, we have only a limited and narrow understanding of how long-established family businesses preserve their longevity, and what role current decision makers play in enhancing and preserving a sustainable competitive advantage that leads to longevity, including interactions and intersections between the decision-maker, the controlling family, and the firm.

Given these premises, this study develops a multilevel microfoundational model to address the research question: how do decision makers contribute to preserving the organisational longevity of family firms? We look closely at how the individual level of decision-makers affects dynamics at the family and organisational levels, thus generating multilevel patterns of interactions that are fundamental in seeking to understand the mechanisms and anatomy of firm longevity (Aguinis et al., 2015). Specifically, we aim to explore how enduring family businesses are currently surviving, focusing on who is managing the firm and assuming a stewardship-oriented governance (Davis et al., 1997) for both family and non-family members, whose interests are in line with those of the family business. We adopt this approach because this governance structure has been identified as more suitable for the family firm’s long-term orientation (James et al., 2017). We identified the Australian wine industry as a fruitful field of research for this investigation. It is a highly dynamic sector where family businesses represent approximately two-thirds of the business community (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). The wine industry generally (Jaskiewicz et al., 2015) and the Australian wine industry specifically have been already identified as a suitable context for empirical studies in the family business field (e.g., Conz et al., 2020; Kidwell & Fish, 2007).

We propose, as the theoretical outcome of our analysis, an emergent multilevel model of the preservation of family firm longevity that integrates the dual firm-family relationship with the individual level of analysis, i.e., decision makers. Findings show how individual attitudes and the interactions among multiple levels of analysis, i.e., the individual, the family and the firm, shape the evolution of the family business and preserve its longevity. We identified three characteristics — i.e., long-term entrepreneurial attitude, adaptive attitude, and “fatalience”— in decision makers responsible for managing and perpetuating the longevity of a long-lasting family business. We labelled “fatalience” the combination of fatalism and personal resilience in the attitude of decision makers (for a detailed description of the term see Sect. 4.1). We identified three family practices — i.e., staying grounded on identity, managing relationship conflicts, promoting management team diversity and lobbying — undertaken at the family level of analysis, to preserve family ownership and business continuity. We then outlined the strategies at the firm level — i.e., long-lasting pivoting, portfolio of niches, and proactive succession planning — that are specifically pursued by decision makers of long-lasting family firms.

In the following, we first introduce the literature on the longevity of firms and family firms. Then, we present the study’s research design, the findings in a narrative form and a summary of the emerging evidence in the data structure. Afterwards, we offer a discussion of the emergent grounded model and its managerial and practical implications. We conclude by addressing the study’s limitations and suggestions for further research.

2 Theoretical background

Organisational longevity, both in terms of long-term survival and business failure, has been widely addressed among business history and management scholars — within and outside the family business realm — as well as in economics and sociology (Riviezzo et al., 2015a, 2015b). In management studies, the term “longevity” has been used as a proxy for growth (Mengistae, 2006), long-term orientation, and the outcome of a sustainable competitive advantage (Habbershon & Williams, 1999). Despite its interdisciplinary nature and heterogeneity in terms of theoretical foundations, methodologies and findings, this stream of research converges on shared approaches and findings (Riviezzo et al., 2015a, 2015b). Most studies are explanatory models at the organisational level of analysis. They adopt a deterministic perspective, seeking to identify what determines business longevity, namely the link between endogenous and exogenous factors/characteristics and business failure/survival. In particular, business longevity is investigated based on (i) environmental characteristics, (ii) organisational and governance characteristics. Within the domain of family business studies, longevity is also specifically linked to (iii) family business’s tangible and intangible resources, (iv) owners' and managers’ characteristics; (v) family influence; and (vi) family business succession processes.

(i) The environmental characteristics–related stream of literature on longevity explores the relationship among the firm and the environment and its effect on an organization’s mortality. This view lies in the organizational ecology theory and evolutionary economics. It assumes that business longevity is the outcome of the organization’s dynamic interaction with its environment (Kim & Huh, 2015; Konz & Katz, 2000; Montuori, 2000). Within this approach, scholars seek to identify the conditions and the causes promoting the adaptation of an organization to change, as a way to explain survivability (Kwee et al., 2008). This research field privileges macro explanations of longevity and macro-macro links— i.e., the correlation between business failure and adverse environmental factors — “at the expense of the individual nature” (Barney & Felin, 2013) of the firm’s outcome in terms of longevity.

(ii) Organisational characteristics-related research is a rather heterogeneous field that embraces most studies on longevity (Riviezzo et al., 2015a, 2015b). These studies highlight the role of internal characteristics, governance and ownership structure, management practices and strategic choices as explanatory factors of long-term success and business longevity (e.g., Hannah, 1999; Mayfield et al., 2007; McGovern, 2007; Napolitano et al., 2015). Within this stream, the resource-based view is the framework most frequently adopted to explain how a firm can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the long run (Barney, 1991, 2001; King et al. 2013). Although the firm level focus captures the essential causes of business longevity, it falls short of showing how longevity is developed in decision making processes and day-to-day operations. These studies, by assuming that once resources, routines, capabilities, and strategies are defined a successful execution automatically follows (De Massis & Foss, 2018), fail to address the question of how the characteristics of managers influence the set of practices and strategies required to achieve business longevity.

(iii) Within the field of family business studies, at the firm level scholars highlight the unique and specific assets of long-lasting family firms (Sharma, 2004; Sharma et al., 1997; Ward, 1997) and examine the processes of growth and the family business-specific resources, i.e., “familiness”, necessary to build the so-called family-based competitive advantage (Habbershon & Williams, 1999). It is recognized the importance of intangible resources as the background of traditions, manufacturing heritage, values, legacy, and social ties as key determinants influencing longevity (Ito et al., 2014). Attention is devoted to governance systems (Di Toma, Montanari, 2017) and toward how to manage the complex dualism between ownership and management within family firms (Nordqvist et al., 2014).

(iv) Studies analysing longevity at the individual level correlate the individual characteristics of owners, managers, and entrepreneurs with the organisational outcome of business longevity. They address the what, namely the personal characteristics of decision makers or the board of directors as predictors of business survivability and performance (Rubino et al., 2017). Among these studies, Burgelman and Grove (2007) propose strategic leadership — how top management designs the strategy-making process — as the means through which leadership influences corporate longevity. Lumpkin et al. (2008) assert that the intentions, values and involvement of a family member in the business affect firm processes and outcomes. They elaborate on the concept of family orientation as the way individuals perceive, relate to and value the family. Hatum and Pettigrew (2004) identify in a versatile manager with heterogeneous managerial skills and a broad knowledge-based the determinant of organizational flexibility, contributing to the adaptation of family-owned firms in highly dynamic environments. Bates (1990) and Sarasvathy and Venkataraman (2011) emphasise the attributes of the owner/entrepreneur and how they influence the performance and longevity of a small family business.

At the individual level of analysis, family business continuity is also explored through the lens of stewardship theory (Davis, 1997), according to family executives act as stewards of the family business because they identify themselves with the family business. A sense of kinship obligation and personal and social fulfilment may contribute to carefully pursuing the well-being and continuity of the enterprise (Arregle et al., 2007; Miller et al., 2008). Pursuing corporate reputation and socio-emotional wealth goals is also indicated as beneficial for the prosperity and longevity of the family firm (Deephouse & Jaskiewicz, 2013). Although these studies focus on the individual level of analysis, they fall short of understanding how individuals relate to the dual family-firm relationship in the process of building longevity. As explained by Barney and Felin (2013, p. 141), reducing everything to individuals is “only micro and not microfoundational”.

v) Studies, that analyse the behaviour and the transgenerational value creation of long-lasting family businesses from the perspective of family attributes and characteristics, shift the focus away from the firm and towards the family unit and its influence on organizational goals (i.e. Naldi et al., 2007; Zellweger & Sieger, 2012; Zellweger et al., 2012). Within this stream, it is recognized the importance of family commitment and cohesion (Pieper, 2007), the role of the family in influencing strategies and decisions (Bertrand & Schoar, 2006; Olson et al., 2003), and the family’s entrepreneurial legacy and orientation (Jaskiewicz et al., 2015) in preserving the business continuity. Emotions in decision-making are also explored coupled with longevity, for instance by investigating how negative emotions, such as jealousy, can be at the root of family fights and might be directly correlated to business failures (Cailluet et al., 2018; Evans, 2018).

vi) Within the family business literature, longevity is also coupled with succession, which is interpreted as a threat to the survival of family-managed organisations. The studies that explicitly seek to relate succession to longevity consider successor-related factors as potential threats and causes of discontinuities that might lead to business failure and investigate how family firms can survive over generations, overcoming the difficulties arising from the succession process (Chua et al., 2003; Ibrahim et al., 2009; Ward, 1997). For instance, it is investigated the relationship between  weak leadership of the next generation, resistance to change of the old generation (Handler & Kram, 1988) and business continuity.

What the literature on longevity still lacks, however, is an understanding of the interactions between the different levels of analysis. Building on these research streams, we investigate how lower level factors (iv. decision makers’ characteristics) interact with the family level (v. family influence and vi. family business succession) and macro level factors (i. environmental characteristics, ii. organisational and governance characteristics and iii. family business’s tangible and intangible resources) in explaining the organisational outcome of longevity.

3 Research design

Given the explorative nature of the research question, we adopted a qualitative interpretive research design to reach an in-depth understanding of the complex and tacit phenomena related to the preservation of longevity in family firms. We applied the Gioia Methodology (Corley & Gioia, 2004; Gioia et al., 2013) to analyse empirical data and present findings. It is a systematic process of grounded theory articulation, already applied in family business literature (Knapp et al., 2013; Salvato & Corbetta, 2013b), that allows to generate a theory that is grounded in the data. The theoretical contribution stems from the generation of new concepts and the interrelationships among those concepts that help in understating the phenomena under investigation (Gehman et al., 2018). The methodology relies on a subjective ontology and a social constructivism epistemology (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), according to which knowledge is socially constructed by reiterated interactions among humans (Luckmann, 1966). Studying socially constructed processes, such as how decision makers contribute to preserving the organisational longevity of family firms, implies focusing on “the means by which organization members go about constructing and understanding their experience” (Gioia et al., 2013, p. 16). The critical assumption of this methodological approach is that informants are knowledgeable agents, namely “people at work that know what they are trying to do and that they can explain to us quite knowledgeably what their thoughts, emotions, intentions, and actions are” (Gehman et al., 2018, p. 291). In adopting a constructive paradigm, we also took into consideration the demand for more interpretive approaches to relevant phenomena in the family business field (Nordqvist et al., 2009).

3.1 Context of analysis and empirical setting

The wine industry is a particularly fruitful context of inquiry, as a great example of long-lasting firms where the interplay between individual and organizational dynamics has been recognized as central (i.e., Zanni et. al, 2010; Lamb et al., 2011; Erdogan et al., 2020; Jaskiewicz et al., 2015). We selected the Australian context as it is one of the oldest industrial sectors in Australia (Anderson & Aryal, 2015). We considered nine long-lasting family businesses that have survived across generations. Cases were selected according to three purposeful sampling criteria (Patton, 2014). First, all the companies had to have been founded at least 50 years ago. Second, they had to fit the definition of family business proposed by Chua et al. (1999, p. 25), i.e. “[…] the family business is a business governed and/or managed with the intention to shape and/or pursue the vision of the business held by a dominant coalition controlled by members of the same family […] in a manner that is potentially sustainable across generations of the family”. Third, the decision maker of the family firm had to be a knowledgeable source of information about the history of the firm and the key events in its whole life cycle. Among the family businesses that matched the above-mentioned criteria, nine were available for repeated in-depth interviews and were included in an international research project, that involved the first author. Table 1 shows a structured comparison of the nine cases and their descriptive statistics.

Table 1 Description of the cases

Settled in this context has been recently published Conz et al. (2020), a phenomenographic enquiry about how owners/managers understand and practise resilience. This study is based on the same nine cases but carried out through a variance research design, with different interviews and questions to the informants.

Besides similarities, selected family businesses are heterogeneous as the interviewees to capture a wide variety of points of view. The nine family firms differ in terms of hectares, the volume of production and foundation year. Cases 1, 2, 3 and 5, 6, 8, 9 are firms in which the family has the 100% of ownership and the business is still owned by descendants of the founders. Case 4 represents a family business that was sold to a multinational group in the late 70 s, but key management positions are still covered by members of the founders’ family that — at the time of the interview — intended to pass the management control to further generations, thus respecting the definition provided by Chua et al. (1999). Case 5 is represented by 51% family ownership, the 49% of shares have been recently sold to foreign investors. Two firms were excluded from the original sample because they did not fit the purposeful sampling criteria. Five (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) among the nine cases were selected through the personal network of the first author. Cases 6, 7, 8, and 9 were unknown to the authors previous the beginning of the research project but were included in a list of potential “candidates” drafted inquiring the Winetitles Media database (Winetitles Media | Wine Industry Statistics, 2018). These latest four cases were contacted and agreed in being part of the project.

3.2 Data collection

We collected qualitative data using semi-structured interviews and desk analysis of written and electronic documentation, which included both public information and materials provided by the company. However, the key data source was the face-to-face semi-structured interviews, conducted with nine informants, one for each family business. The informants could be family or non-family members. Rather than just having a stake in the company, they had to be directly involved in its everyday operations, assuming substantial managerial responsibility. We limited interviews to one informant per case as we wanted to focus on the person, i.e., the decision maker assessing the overall direction and strategy of the business within each family business. To identify respondents, we carefully studied the governing body and the family structure of each case, to be sure we were interviewing a key informant, an expert source of information (Marshall, 1996), that was also a knowledgeable agent. Table 2 reports the characteristics of the informants and the interview mode.

Table 2 Informants’ characteristics and interview mode

In identifying the knowledgeable agents, we also maximized the heterogeneity of the informants to capture as many varied perspectives as possible on the investigated phenomenon, as suggested in previous studies that adopted this methodology (e.g., Knapp et al., 2013). One of the key variables is the relationship of the decision maker with the family. Non-family members are vital for some family firms and our rationale was also to explore if family firms managed by non-family members are approaching the preservation of longevity as family firms managed by family members. We were also interested in capturing the point of view of non-family members that, in some cases, are the ones in charge of strategic and managerial decisions regarding longevity. Nevertheless, we interviewed them as the last cases, to corroborate our preliminary theorization obtained from the interviews with family members.

Supplementary secondary sources — 137 documents including books, industry reports, newspaper and magazine clippings and company websites — served as an important triangulation source. The desk analysis helped also to extend our knowledge of the Australian wine industry and the cases. Financial statistics, demographics, and generalities of the members of the board of each case were drawn from the 2018 Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory (Winetitles Media, 2018) and the LexisNexis and Bureau Orbis Van Dijk corporate information databases. Secondary data helped also to find mentoring episodes (Beal et al., 2005; Salvato & Corbetta, 2013b), to force the informant to illustrate specific behavioural episodes, correlated to the history of the company and their own experience.

Semi-structured interviews aimed at capturing the perspectives of decision makers both on the history and on the key events in the life of each company, as well as their direct involvement in preserving the longevity of the business. Questions were designed to cover all the longevity-related aspects we identified in the theoretical framework (viz. environmental, organisational, individual characteristics, family business resources, family influence and succession processes), with special attention to the interaction among micro and macro levels of analysis.

Each informant was interviewed twice: the first time at the very beginning of the research project in February-March 2016 in person at the winery, and the second in the time frame July 2019-November 2021 remotely.

The first author of the research carried out all the interviews. An Australian native speaker attended all the interviews of the first round, to help in the understanding of colloquialisms or jargon. Updates in the second round were carried out by the first author alone. Recording of the interviews was necessary for the validity of the data, but also to allow the interviewer to be a free and attentive listener. In the first round of the interviews, we asked: (1) What are the factors that, in your opinion, explain the longevity of your company? (2) What strategies has the company adopted, and still adopts, to thrive in such a turbulent environment? (3) How does the family contribute to the longevity of this family business? We avoided asking direct questions about their role in currently managing the family business, so as not to influence the interviewees’ responses, to avoid any social desirability bias (Fisher, 1993), and to avoid imposing the authors’ understanding on the interviewees. The questions did not explicitly focus on individual-related factors because microfoundations are not solely about individuals (Barney & Felin, 2013). Conversations lasted between 50 and 70 min (preliminary questions included). Overall, after the first phase, 170 pages (480 min) of records were verbatim transcribed by professional native Australian English transcribers.

In the second round, we showed them the preliminary grounded model, checking for contradictory or confirmatory feedback and asked more specific, targeted questions: 1) What has been, and is your role in sustaining and preserving the longevity of the business? 2) In your opinion, what are the factors that are currently contributing to the survival of the business? On average, the interviews lasted approximately 40 min, ranging from 30 to 50 min. We audio-recorded all the conversations, which resulted in 150 pages of text (400 min).

3.3 Data analysis: the coding process

The open coding process followed the specific guidelines of a systematic inductive concept development approach (Gioia et al., 2013; Kvale, 1994). Researchers unfamiliar with the study — during conferences and workshops — were involved in a mutual discussion to refine the terms and phrases used in the coding process. The first stage allowed the researcher to ‘enter the field’, understand the informants’ points of view and make sense of the data answering ‘What’ questions: what are the factors and the strategies currently preserving the longevity of the company for the future? What contribution does the individual believe he/she is making to the longevity of the family business?

In the second phase of the coding process the focus was on the role of the individual and how, according to the interviewee, he/she manages the family business to preserve its longevity for the future. In coding the transcripts, there also emerged the characteristics, actions and attributes at the firm and family level that, according to the interviewee, contribute to longevity, thus new codes were added. The coding dictionary evolved throughout the data analysis process: new codes and themes were added and iteratively renamed. Transcripts were coded a multiplicity of times and the coding process was completely rebuilt and revised after the second round of interviews. We stopped collecting data when we had a clear picture of the aggregate dimensions and their relationships, and we were confident that a further interview would fail to reveal new data relationships, due to the reaching category of saturation namely the repetition of information from a new interview and confirmation of existing conceptual categories (Suddaby, 2006).

The result of the first-order analysis is represented by 180 initial categories that were reduced to 41 first-order concepts, a more “manageable number” (Gioia et al., 2013). The first-order concepts were grouped according to the level of analysis, namely individual, family and firm. This methodological approach is consistent with the multilevel nature of microfoundational research, and it allowed us to examine cross-level direct effects of the individual level variables on firm level variables (Aguinis & Molina-Azorín, 2015). We also considered the “family” as its own level of analysis (McKenny et al., 2014) to look at how family level variables interact with individual variables in influencing noneconomic goals in the family business.

In the second-order analysis, 10 second-order themes emerged, by looking for patterns of association among first-order themes. Finally, second-order themes were merged in three final aggregated dimensions: 1. Individual attitudes in managing a long-lasting family business (Dimension 1 in Fig. 1); 2. Family practices to preserve family ownership and business continuity (Dimension 2 in Fig. 1); 3. Firm’s strategies to preserve business longevity (Dimension 3 in Fig. 1). The three dimensions refer to the three levels of analysis, respectively the individual, the family and the firm. The data structure is illustrated in Fig. 1. As pointed out by Salvato and Corbetta (2013a), the data structure is not a causal or dynamic model, but rather the representation of the core concepts and their relationships, and it serves as a basis for the emergent bottom-up grounded model (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1

Data structure

Fig. 2

Multilevel grounded model of longevity preservation in family firms

4 Findings

4.1 Dimension 1: individual attitudes in managing a long-lasting family business

Our empirical evidence identifies in the approaches and attitudes of who manages the organisation, the mediator of the dual family-firm relationship for preserving business longevity. We observed that the individual who is successfully running a long-lasting family business has a strong long-term entrepreneurial attitude (1a) and an adaptive attitude in the individual’s relationship with family members (1b) — i.e., the ability to change behaviour with family members to circumstances and situations, e.g., behaving differently at home and in the workplace. Lastly, we termed “fatalience” (1c) a specific attitude that emerged from the interviews, and that combines the belief that events are predetermined and therefore inevitable (fatalism) with a proactive and positive mindset in coping with such events, leading to a greater ability to handle unexpected shocks (resilience). It differs from over-confidence since it reveals an attitude more than a cognitive bias. Both can influence a person's behaviour, but bias is a prejudice in favour of or against one thing/person, whilst “attitude” is an evaluative judgement of a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour (Eagly & Chaiken, 2007). “Fatalience” is very similar to the notion of “Antifragile” (Taleb, 2012), though the latter refers to a reactive characteristic of individuals and organisations while “fatalience” is a proactive attitude when dealing with change.

4.1.1 1a. Long-term entrepreneurial attitude to the family business

A strong entrepreneurial attitude rooted in individual beliefs and actions was frequently noticed during our interviews, despite literature mainly depicts long lasting family businesses as more conservative and less risk-taking and innovative than younger ones (Miller et al., 2008; Sharma, 2004). This entrepreneurial thinking influences the way difficulties and external threats are addressed, thus helping to foster the longevity of the family business. Specifically, we labelled long-term entrepreneurial attitude to the family business the entrepreneurial tendency of decision makers (both family and non family members) — who show characteristics such as innovativeness, risk-taking, need for achievement, self-confidence, and locus of control (Do & Dadvari, 2017) — to act entrepreneurially with a high future orientation and long-term goals and objectives that involve periods longer than 5 years (Miller & Le Breton–Miller, 2005).

We are taken a leadership position in that variety [of wine] and we've started investing in our vineyards and winery. So, we're actually thinking and operating like we supposed be here in 165 years. (Case 7).

I think that's another reason that family companies succeed in agricultural industries, is to have a very long-term, a long-term focus. (Case 6).

The long-term entrepreneurial propensity is also particularly evident in the young generations, especially when it is time to take over a century-old business that has been recently “shocked” by the unexpected loss of the owner. An informant argued this point, speaking about how she is trying to ensure the family business survives in this critical phase of its life cycle, by acting entrepreneurially:

We are looking at the changes […]. Maybe in the eighties and nineties, change was slow, and you could react slowly, but now, you have to act quickly. (Case 5).

A priori skills and characteristics of who manages the business emerge as key drivers in managing changes and unexpected events, contributing to the formation of a longevity-oriented entrepreneurial attitude at the individual level. In particular, the individual proactiveness, the attitude toward exploration, and passion for their work — strong inclination towards an activity (Burke & Fiksenbaum, 2009) — are individual skills that positively impact the longevity of the business:

And I’m looking all the time at the trends and reading about the economy, and consumer trends, and innovation, and [pause]. For example, solar, we'd love to get solar in time, because our climate is changing, and if we want to keep growing grapes, we need to be proactive, not reactive. (Case 5).

To be in the wine industry you've got to have passion. If you haven't got passion for it, it won't work. (Case 1).

               

A senior winemaker, explained how an entrepreneurial perception of fluctuating market trends and a determination to avoid “lying in the past”, make possible to respond effectively to the turbulence of a highly dynamic market, like that of the wine industry, thus allowing the firm to remain stable in the marketplace:

               It's very difficult to break through. So, we can make Rieslings and any whites, and now moving into the aroma varieties, because there is the temperature for Sicilian wines. Just to try and see where we go, foreign market is changing. (Case 1).

The long-term entrepreneurial attitude is also supported by managerial skills, especially soft ones (i.e., leadership, capacity to delegate). These abilities, accumulated through personal experience and former education, also reflect organisational values developed over decades. Both family and non-family members are aware that they must delegate and rely on a “good team” or external help to sustain the business over time.

There's a lot of positives but it had to have some structure around it.We put a lot of emphasis on leadership and delegation. (Case 6).

But I have a very good team. That is something I have learnt; we've learnt over the years. And we always had outside accounting help, outside secretarial help. And through the years, we've learnt that we've had to increase our staff and get people on board that know what they're doing. (Case 8).

4.1.2 1b. Adaptive attitude in the relationship with family members

The way decision makers contribute to sustaining the business is strongly influenced by how they perceive and relate to family members who are working within the family business. Family members with management responsibilities are inevitably emotionally closed to the family, even though they can separate family commitments from business, adapting their approaches to the needs of their role in different situations change. We termed this as adaptive attitude in the relationship with family members. Managing a family business requires the ability to step into the personal or professional roles according to the specific situation, but also the inability to objectively evaluate actions, skills and capabilities of other family members. The emotional bias might jeopardise the survivability of the business. One family member explained it with the “three hats” analogy:

We've got three hats. Owner, winemaker, and I'm also an employee of the company. When having a family meeting I have two hats. When I talk family, I got family hat on. When talking business, I got the winery hat on. (Case 1).

We also observed that decision makers of long-lasting family businesses are quite good at objectively evaluating when it is time for their children or relatives to enter the business. Being part of a family business is not a “birth right”, and they are aware that the influence of emotions and family ties on personnel recruitment might be critical for the preservation of the business, especially when the time comes to hire the new generation. Entrant family members are required to meet strict business qualifications, avoiding nepotism or favouritism when recruiting employees.

We now have criteria that must be met for children [next generation] coming into the business. Because it's not a right. Because your parents are here, it is not a right for you to come into the business. (Case 8).

All my wife and I ever talked about was the winery and so we sent them [the daughters] some parameters, everyone come back to the business and had to have a tertiary qualification, and they had to have travelled overseas, and they had to have worked at least six years in another company. And then they had the right then to apply for a job. (Case 1).

They also show the ability to be emotionally detached in managing the professional and self-expectations of other family members. Also, non-family members with managerial responsibilities show a specific adaptive attitude: like family members, they firmly believe that working in the business is not a right to be taken for granted, even though:

[…] they're [family members] so passionate, they are sort of born with it, the winery. They live there, they played in the roots […] and you have to manage them and their expectations because is not a right for them to be part of the business. (Case 7).

They feel a sense of commitment to the family business and a great responsibility towards the owning family and its members. As the manager of a family business, they are aware that if they want to consolidate the business, ensure stability, and guarantee the continuation of the family ownership for further generations, they have to be highly motivated pursuing their vision and strategy, avoiding favouritism and being careful not to “give in” easily to the requests or demands of some family members. Mainly, they must manage family members’ expectations — especially if these expectations might negatively impact the business:

I'm quite blunt. I can be quite blunt and with family members I am quite, sort of, direct with and say, I don't want to talk to you if you're going to be negative. If you wanna make a contribution, good. But the winery is going to go on with or without you. So, if you wanna be part of it, you're lucky to be a part of it. (Case 7).

4.1.3 1c. “Fatalience” attitude to change

You turn into a philosopher and say well it happened. You can't do very much about it, and you just do what you can do with it. (Case 2).

We observed fatalism in words used by individuals we interviewed, especially when we asked them to review the history of their business. The Cambridge Dictionary defines “fatalism” as the belief that people cannot change the way events will happen and – especially bad ones — cannot be avoided. This feeling usually refers to related synonyms like pessimism, negative thinking, and bad luck. Fatalist attitudes have been proven to negatively influence the decisions of managers and entrepreneurs (Ruiu, 2018) and have negative effects on preparation for natural disasters (Baytiyeh et al., 2016), and in general on a firm’s resilience (Hill et al., 2012; Conz, 2017).

This is not the case for decision makers of long lasting businesses in our sample. They accept some things simply happen and can’t be avoided and remain quite philosophical in awaiting their occurrence. However, they also show a very positive and proactive attitude towards such circumstances. They do their best to be prepared, they study the scenario to mitigate these risks and turn them into opportunities.

You're a bloody fool if you're winemaking. It's too much risk. It's like wheat or anything else, you can have a beautiful crop one minute, next minute it's gone. (Case 1).

We observed a positive interpreation of fatalism as it is traditionally understood, i.e., they showed a combination of “fatalism” and “resilience” that we named fatalience attitude to change. Decision makers with this attitude believe that certain future events cannot be predicted and must be accepted, even though they do not passively wait for them:

If I can’t change things, at least I can be prepared while I see them coming. (Case 2).

You can see the forecasts, you can prevent, but until a certain point, and you can't stop raining, you can't change the weather conditions, but you can do your best to be ready. (Case 2).

At the same time, they show a form of laid-back “no need to rush” culture and the ability to wait for things to happen and the right moment to act. For instance, unpredictable weather conditions are part of any agricultural activity. Nevertheless, they cope with this circumstance with “positive” fatalism leading to a higher degree of individual resilience, i.e., “fatalience”:

I think that is the same also, with the changing in environmental conditions, so you can see the forecasts, you can prevent, but until a certain point, and you can't stop raining, you can't change the weather conditions, but you can do your best to be ready. (Case 2).

4.2 Dimension 2: family practices to preserve family ownership and business continuity

Preservation of family ownership and business continuity is a common objective of long-lasting family firms. The decision makers we interviewed clearly expressed how four different practices — undertaken at the family level — foster business longevity. Data provide evidence that the owning family of a long-lasting family business fosters longevity by 2a) staying grounded on identity; 2b) managing relationship conflicts; 2c) promoting management team diversity, and 2d) lobbying.

4.2.1 2a Staying grounded on identity

The organisational identity of long-lasting family firms combines family and business elements, transmitted from generation to generation (Whetten et al., 2014). The relationship between the family and business identity is bidirectional, family and business core characteristics are mutually related and evolve together. Decision makers asserted that a key factor in sustaining the business over time has been and still is the preservation of the business identity. Nevertheless, this aspect was claimed to be a key driver of change and decision making, not a source of stability. As generations succeed or unexpected shocks occur, both family harmony and business continuity are challenged. Reframing the business identity, while preserving the core values and characteristics of the family identity, is essential for the survivability of the business. A young decision maker told us that after the unexpected deaths, within six months, of both her father and her grandfather, she and her mother were forced to rethink the business identity to ensure the family winery survived:

Just a really small, but simple thing that we’ve done [after her father and grandfather death] is we’ve looked better at our market and who are we, and what did we stand for. (Case 5).

As the decision maker of Case 1 told us, to prosper and allow the business to survive and to preserve your market position, it is essential to “stay grounded on identity”. The identity of the family is reflected in the brand, because it is the family name that stands out on the wine label:

Your brand is king. And you can't ever, do anything that will jeopardise any of those things because your name stands behind your brand. (Case 1).

Furthermore, respondents specifically stressed tradition as a key pillar for preserving the identity of their long-lasting businesses. Tradition includes the recognition of shared history and the contribution of ancestors, put into practice through the preservation of rituals and routines to perpetuate family beliefs (Lumpkin et al., 2008). In our cases, the decision makers strongly emphasised that the preservation of the corporate heritage, like the core architectural elements of the original winery, is essential to preserve family and business identity:

Our winery started when my great grandfather built this house here, which are now our offices and then he built the winery here about the same time. As part of the winery, we were standing before, that's now part of the winery. We call that the heart and soul of the winery. (Case 8).

Family values, such as honesty and integrity, are also strongly emphasised as key pillars of the business and family identity, by both family and non-family members, and are reflected in the ‘work ethic’ of the business. In particular, integrity is interpreted as adherence of family members to moral and ethical principles:

And if you go ahead and you're honest with yourself. Honest to the people. Honest to the workers. You want a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Right? (Case 9).

As regards the role of the family in preserving knowledge — a key asset of any long-lasting family business, all the respondents confirmed that the family has a primary role in perpetuating existing knowledge. New generations will combine extant and new knowledge to develop opportunities, that enhance the competitive advantage of the firm, thus fostering survivability:

You're around your parents all the time, and they somehow pass on things that you'll benefit from. There is an evolution […] from when the next generation comes back, probably for the first couple of years, they're a bit of a sponge on their mentor. And the previous generation. And they're sucking a fair bit of information. (Case 4).

4.2.2 2b Managing relationship conflicts

Old families owning long-lasting family businesses recognize that as a family business they have a set of relational issues to deal with when managing conflicts. Bad interpersonal relationships and negative feelings between family members might lead to potential conflicts that affect inter alias the succession process, thus threatening the survivability of the business (Cailluet et al., 2018; De Massis et al., 2008). Similarly, conflicts among and between employees can also threaten the stability of a business: to reduce the chance of tensions and disagreements among and with non-family members, decision makers relate to non-family members as they are part of the family:

You [the employee] just don't come here because you've got a dollar. You want to be here. You want to be part of the business. This is a big family. 42 people, I call it big family when we get together. Every now and again, you know, to me it's very important. To say good morning to them every morning. (Case 9).

Conflicts between incumbents and non-family members are equally recognized as factors capable of preventing successful succession and continuity of the business (ibid). A collaborative environment decreases the risks of conflicts: an informant clearly explained how family members maintain positive relationships at the workplace:

We don't do to others the way you don't want others do to you. Very informed, simple little words. But it means a lot. That's my principle from day one. And I still got it. And it will never go away. You know, I was gonna hit you on your head, well I don't want to be hit. So what you gonna do? Well, something's wrong so that's when we say, do not do to others the way you don't want them to do to you. It's that simple. (Case 9).

The family prevents conflicts by also defining for each family member involved in the business a specific role, to avoid further disputes among siblings or in the parent–child relationship.

Everyone must have a fully functioning role within the business. In my generation, you came on board, and as I said, we did everything. But now we will not make a role up to suit a child coming into the business. (Case 8).

Managing conflicts by limiting the number of family members with decision-making responsibilities to react quickly to changes is also strongly encouraged by non-family managers:

There's been a lot of different factions within the family. We have fifth generation family members working within the winery, and that's probably not helped with the cohesion and direction of the company. Because they're all debating. So that's why a new board, we have one family member on the board. So now it's an independent board, so that takes decision very quickly. (Case 7).

4.2.3 2c. Promoting management team diversity

Diversity of experiences is recognized to be highly constructive in developing new managerial skills, judgement capabilities (Sardeshmukh & Corbett, 2011), and supporting governance processes (Haxhi, Van Ees, 2010). Heterogenous work and business experiences increase the diversification of the human capital, enhancing the identification of new and profitable opportunities and then well-considered decisions (ibid). Families managing long-lasting businesses are aware that diversified human capital may open the firm to new ideas and solutions. Although a branch of the family business literature describes family businesses — especially the oldest ones — as reluctant to hire full-time qualified non-family employees (Ling & Kellermanns, 2010), our cases show that families recognize the positive relationship between human capital diversity and recognition of opportunities to promote the growth and sustainability of the business. All of our respondents reported that the family promotes the acquisition of non-family members’, because their knowledge and competencies will “make a difference” in the long-run:

We just got someone joining us who will be responsible for dedicated to social media, dedicated to be the business to customer. So, our direct customer area of the business has delivered nothing for us in the past. But M. will be absolutely focused and she's 25, […] I know she will make a difference to our business. So that's pretty exciting, I think. It's not another person who's just gonna occupy a desk. They gotta make a difference. (Case 7).

A senior decision maker encouraged his daughters to receive external working training. Women’s involvement is also promoted as a source of human capital diversity and women’s characteristics are considered as entrepreneurial drivers for the family business (Campopiano et al., 2017):

A woman offers a different perspective […]. We have other skills to bring [as women]. I think in the past, though, women were just considered to be mothers and home makers. For one generation to look at the next, they [the family members] need to not only just look at the skills of the males, they need to look at the skills of the females as well. (Case 5).

4.2.4 2d. Lobbying

Cooperation among families in the wine industry emerged as a key practice in fostering longevity. In particular, the families behind long-lasting businesses cooperate and actively participate in local political decision-making, largely to protect their industry and preserve their national markets. According to Morck (1996), old families are well placed to practise political lobbying because of the strength of their networks and connections. Lobbying is intended to erect barriers to entry, hinder competition, and protect organisational and local interests:

The wine groups have now been promoting regional characters and so now people are getting more of a handle on your Cabernets, the differences between those and the Barrossa Shiraz and Clare Shiraz and Hunter Valley […] so they getting bit more of an idea of regionality […]. And there has been a renewed interest in Australia because of that. (Case 2).

Five cases are also part of a family business group and several industry associations, that operate to preserve the legal protection of regional wines and grape variety denominations.

And we've got an enormous amount of political power up our sleeve and we're working out now how best to use it for the good of the industry. (Case 1).

Strong networks and connections foster mutual support that helps in managing the “unexpected”, as a respondent explained, referring to a recent episode:

We had a situation last week […]. A winery had a problem, they needed something bottled urgently. So, we had to think very carefully about that and it's interesting how my general manager said, 'We can’t do it. Because we been asked by other people to get a contract bottling and we refused’, and I said 'that's not fine', I said, 'if somebody gets into trouble in this area, we've always helped them out’. (Case 1).

A winemaker and owner particularly emphasised the link between being part of a regional wine group and longevity, especially for a small winery. She remarked that old wineries must act collectively, representing and protecting their interests, especially against new-born competitors:

In recent years there's been a lot of need to exert power. We're a historic wine growing region and so we're a bit boring and old hat. We're not as exciting as Yarra Valley or Heathcote. And so we need to keep reminding people that we're here. (Case 3).

4.3 Dimension 3: firm strategies to preserve business longevity

The individual attitudes of decision makers in managing a long-lasting family business have effects on the family-firm relationship and, particularly, influence family business’s strategies for preserving longevity. Scholars have already recognized the role of the controlling family and managerial attitudes/values in the pursuit of a specific practice or strategy (Chua et al., 1999). Our findings show the mediator role of the attitudes of decision makers in the relationship between family practices and organizational strategies, which foster the survivability of the family business. In all the nine cases, the firms pursue three different strategies to sustain the business in the long term: 3a) long-lasting pivoting, 3b) portfolio of niches, and 3c) proactive succession planning. After presenting findings and aggregate dimensions at the individual and family level, we illustrate the firm level aggregate dimensions, detailing the interactions between the different levels of analysis. Key testable propositions are also elaborated.

4.3.1 3a. Long-lasting pivoting

Long-lasting pivoting emerges as a key strategy to foster longevity. In business model innovation literature, pivoting is identified as the strategy of changing the primary business model (Hacklin et al., 2018) by proactively substituting key elements in tandem with the external environment, while staying grounded on what has been learned (ibid). In all our cases, we observed the strategy of keeping the pillar of the business identity — pivot — stationary and moving the business around it to search for new opportunities. These changes are necessary to adapt the family business to the external environment and stay competitive. Drawing on the pivoting concept of the innovation literature (Hacklin et al., 2018), we labelled long-lasting pivoting the strategy of staying grounded on two pillars, knowledge and the core business identity, and then looking around searching for new desirable opportunities.

We noticed that it is the decision maker’s “fatalience” attitude that positively influences both decision-making processes and strategy implementation. Decision makers emerged as perceiving a permanent sense of challenge while showing a “fatalience” attitude that allows them to approach change as something inevitable but feasible and to introduce new value-creating business activities to adapt the winery to the changing market:

We not expect to run the business the way that it was in the previous generations, and part of that strategy is also to look at what you have, what your strengths are, but then also, well, how we can change, and go forward, and innovate. (Case 6).

A decision maker clearly showed “fatalience” in her approach to change. She had learned from experience that change is “inevitable”, and her comments convey a sense of resignation but also the acknowledgement that she can’t change the identity of a century-old winery. What emerges is “fatalience” as a driver of a pivoting approach, to manage change and respond to market needs, for instance by introducing new wines, while remaining committed to the core of the business. Especially, staying grounded on the core values of the family identity and relying on the knowledge that is passed through generations, could represent an anchor in times of crisis, around which pivoting in search of new opportunities. The “fatalience” attitude of decision makers also mitigates the impact of the “conservative” organizational traits of long-standing family organisations. Accordingly, the family identity and history is positively exploited as a pillar of the pivoting approach:

Doing new things in an old business and an old industry is hard. Because sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and you have– you're flying blind a lot, and just taking risks that you don't know if they'll pay off. Really stripping everything back and going to the core, to find out what's important, and fortifieds are a huge part of our history. (Case 6).

In some cases, these changes also involve the primary business model. For instance, to differentiate from wine multinationals and to financially support wine production, a winery opened a gourmet restaurant, while carefully preserving the identity of “Fortified winemakers”:

Well for example this cafe area. Recognising we needed to something else other than just a cellar door. We needed to be a bit quirky, we needed to be a little bit offer different things […]. So it’s just a point of difference and another reason for people to come here, even our artwork, our iron work, the garden that we sell around that, another reason for people to come here. (Case 3).

Another informant described a past episode of long-lasting pivoting, necessary to address the changes brought by an unexpected event — the death of her father:

In the 70s, was a huge change. Dad had died in 68, so the business was then run by my three brothers […] I was younger then and in the 70 s there was a glut of grapes, wine grapes and they were known to be processed for making juice. So, my brothers went on to making juice. And that change into making juice what saved the company. (Case 8).

Promoting the individual diversity of the management team is also positively associated with the strategy of pivoting. All respondents — both family and non-family members — had external working experiences and recognized diversity as a driver in discovering and creating new profitable business opportunities and achieving long-term business sustainability.

And I think experience, I think it’s very important for the longevity of the business if there are family members who are passionate and interested about continuing the family business. If they have experience outside of that business before they bring, you now, with the view to bring new ideas. (Case 3).

Thus, we develop the following propositions:

Proposition 1a

The family practice of staying grounded on identity is positively associated with long-lasting pivoting as a strategy to preserve business longevity.

Proposition 1b

The “fatalience” attitude of decision makers helps the family to stay grounded on identity and foster long-lasting pivoting. Specifically, the more decision makers show a “fatalience” attitude, the more likely the firm will pursue the strategy of long-lasting pivoting.

Proposition 1c

The family practice of promoting management team diversity is positively associated with long-lasting pivoting as a strategy to preserve business longevity.

4.3.2 3b. Portfolio of niches

One of the dominant strategies adopted by family firms is the market niche, and our sample respects the requisites of the niche. According to Shani and Chalasani (1992, p. 34), a niche strategy is “a creative process of carving out a smaller part of the market whose needs are not fulfilled. By specialisation along market, customer, product or marketing mix lines, a company can match these lines”. The niche is bounded by barriers that make difficult for other competitors to enter, so that those within the niche can preserve their leading position (Delacroix & Solt, 1987; Shani & Chalasani, 1992; Zucchella et al., 2016). As two decision makers asserted, their local wine region has singular characteristics that are reflected in the production of unique fortified wines:

We got a slogan that wine is different and we're trying to pull ourselves away from the other groups […]. So, we’re trying to differentiate ourselves from all other alcohol products because it is a wine which is used for specific purpose, not the entrée but to have with food. (Case 1).

Such uniqueness is also claimed by the informant of another case, speaking about one of their flagship products, a “distinctive point of difference” of their offer:

There's no other winery like us because you can see that the juice comes to suburban Adelaide. There's one other winery in Adelaide suburbia […] huge multinational company. They do crush a little, but they don't crush as we do here. So, we're fully operating family winery in suburbia, this really prompts as unique thing. (Case 8).

Significant investments in the marketing area are allocated to communicate the uniqueness of the firm’s story, so to strengthen the position in the niche:

I think at the moment in the wine industry, that story is not told well enough, and we need to be telling it better because I think that’s going to be our next marketing story. That our wines have a sense of place. Like you can sit here, and drink and the grapes come from the vineyards that you can see out the window. (Case 3).

Exercising lobbying as a family is a practice that helps long-lasting family firms to consolidate their competitive advantage in the niche. However, while operating in a niche allows wineries to gain recognition for their distinctive traits, there are also some negatives, like surviving in the market with a niche product when consumption is constantly decreasing on the domestic market. All the decision makers in our group, being aware of the limitations of the national market niche, recognized that to survive in the new global market and against new incumbents, they have to lobby to protect their interests and capture new international opportunities.

And looking to diversify to export. We have exported but we haven’t exported a lot in the past because we haven’t produced a lot. And we will be producing more because we increase our vineyard area so I’m starting work now looking for export markets. (Case 3).

Consumer behaviour is also rapidly evolving, and the Australian wine industry is dealing with a “fashion swing” towards New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc flavours. A wider offer covers all consumer tastes and allows adaptation to the dynamics of the domestic and foreign wine markets:

So, we can make any whites, and now moving into the aromatic varieties, because there is the temperature for Sicilian wines. Just to try and see where we go, foreign market is changing. (Case 2).

The progressive development and expansion of several related niche businesses result in a portfolio of niches (Magnani & Zucchella, 2019). Specifically, firms keep a “niche imprinting”: instead of expanding their original niche market breadth, they “move” in “proximate” small niches, thus building a portfolio of niches (ibid) to achieve the long-term objective of survivability, for instance producing new white varieties. We also observed that the “niche” is the result of an entrepreneurial creative process that takes place at the individual level, based on the attitudes of individuals as well as on their interpretations of market changes (Zucchella et al., 2016). Individual factors, such as prior experiences, education, and managerial skills define an entrepreneurial attitude that is crucial in the decision to opt for a strategic niche positioning:

So, I talk about how it’s been a fundamental structural change to the wine industry globally. And so, we looked at that and said ‘how do we be successful in this marketplace?’. So, it was taking a market view rather than, ‘we make wine and we make good wine, so we’ll always be’. (Case 6).

We propose accordingly:

Proposition 2a

The family practice of lobbying is positively associated with the development of a portfolio of niches as a strategy to preserve business longevity.

Proposition 2b

The long-term entrepreneurial attitude of decision makers helps the family to practice lobbying and foster the creation of a portfolio of niches. Specifically, the more a decision maker shows a long-term entrepreneurial attitude, the more likely the firm will pursue the strategy of a portfolio of niches.

4.3.3 3c. Proactive succession planning

A third strategy for preserving family ownership and business continuity is proactive succession planning. Within the context of our study, we refer to succession planning as “the deliberate and formal process that facilitates the transfer of management control from one family member to another” (Sharma et al., 2003, p. 1). It is a strategic tool to execute a family decision at the organizational level. An informant described how he and his brother, despite having very different views about the business, successfully managed the succession by proactively and strategically planning the transition. He is aware that conflicts may arise because of the different views of each family member, but they all shared the willingness to protect the business. They mutually agreed on the need to collaborate by maintaining positive relationships in the whole organization — one of the four approaches to conflict management (Sorenson, 1999; Thomas & Kilmann, 1974) —, thereby facilitating ownership and leadership transition:

So my brother looks after the farm and vineyard, I look after the winery and the commercial area of the operation. So that's the background. It's got its challenges, you talk about longevity and the generations […] now obviously we've all had different philosophies, it's gonna be a challenge. And we've got a very sophisticated succession plan, try and protect the company and in the line of the family and I guess I’ll see the results and I’ll be one of the causes to happen. (Case 1).

In family firms that have survived and continue to survive, there is the awareness that conflicts can and must be managed, otherwise, they can destroy the business:

I think that's just saying something about the relationship. Some families don’t forget. The ability to be able to diffuse that and say ok, let’s go forward, because what’s the common theme here and the common theme is that the family depends on the winery. (Case 8).

Even though succession planning is recognized in the literature as a practice that ensures the continuity and propensity of family firms (Sharma et al., 2003), not all decision makers plan succession considering all organizational implications. This is exemplified in one case, whose owner died prematurely, without planning succession. Our informant, the daughter, who currently manages the business, told us that succession was a “tough topic”, something that was never discussed among family members and neither among employees, so as not to generate conflicts. Not having a succession plan was the cause of huge legal issues. She learned from this experience and now strongly advocates proactive strategic planning of succession:

I've thought about this a lot, because we've had so many changes; I wish I could go back to my dad and my grandpa, who I respect, but had very traditional, old school views. I wish I could go back to them and say, “Well, you know, why don't we talk about succession”. (Case 5).

An adaptive attitude when family members interact with each other and with other key people in the organization is also determinant in managing conflicts. A collaborative approach is a conflict management strategy that indicates a willingness to adapt and find “win–win” solutions for all the participants (Sorenson, 1999; Thomas & Kilmann, 1974). The decision maker of the above-mentioned case, when describing how she and her family managed succession, demonstrated an adaptive attitude, by discussing succession through a collaborative approach to conflict. She also showed open communication, trust, support to her brother, and the ability to behave like a manager but also like a sister:

I think succession has been a big discussion over the last few years with my family, even with my mum, I think that's been a big discussion over the last few years with my family […] so, right now, my mum, my brother and I are all involved, but my brother doesn't want to work with us, so the challenge is, well, how do we go forward so he can achieve his dreams […] and how do we do it so the business can continue and go forward, and still he achieve his goals. (Case 5).

We, therefore, propose:

Proposition 3a

The family practice of successfully managing relationship conflicts is positively associated with proactive succession planning as an organisational strategic tool to preserve business longevity.

Proposition 3b

The adaptive attitude of decision makers helps the family to manage relationship conflicts and foster a proactive succession planning. Specifically, the more a decision maker shows an adaptive attitude, the more likely the firm will pursue a proactive succession planning strategy.

5 Discussion

5.1 Theoretical contribution

This study challenges conventional research on longevity (Riviezzo et al., 2015a, 2015b) and acknowledged the role of the decision maker in preserving family business longevity. Consistent with the microfoundational perspective (Felin & Foss, 2005, 2011), we propose a multilevel theory of longevity preservation in family firms, contributing to management and family business studies on longevity. So doing, we answered the call of De Massis and Foss (2018) for small N approaches based on qualitative research methods to describe causal micro–macro mechanisms. The primary contribution to theory lies in the formal propositions we developed to reflect the multilevel nature of longevity as an organizational goal (Kotlar et al., 2018). Specifically, they describe the interaction among the different levels of analysis, according to the microfoundational approach of the study, namely "think multilevel" (ibid). We also contribute to theory by:

(i) expanding and complementing previous results on the role of decision makers in sustaining the business over time (Conz et al., 2020) and clarifying differences and similarities among two concepts, longevity and resilience, frequently overlapped. According to our theorization, longevity is an organisational outcome stemming from the interactions among different levels of analysis and in which the micro-level has an explanatory role over the macro. Conversely, resilience, both at the individual and organizational levels, is one of the antecedents of longevity, namely being a resilient organization managed by resilient decision makers increased the chances of preserving longevity. Specifically, compared to Conz et al. (2020), a variance study carried out through a phenomenographic enquiry about how owners/managers understand and practise organisational resilience in long-standing family businesses, we provide empirical evidence about the multilevel structure of longevity, outlining the dynamics and interactions about micro and macro level factors and resilience as one of the antecedents of longevity. At the individual level, we observed that resilience is coupled with fatalism, in the attitude of “fatalience”. At the firm level, resilience is the organizational ability to adapt to changing circumstances and stemmed from the dynamic balance of three firm strategies practised to preserve longevity;

(ii) identiyfing three individual attitudes in decision makers successfully running and managing long-lasting family businesses. They have a long-term entrepreneurial attitude and act entrepreneurially by capturing new opportunities to maintain the firm’s leading role in the niche, while at the same time developing new niche markets. Within this dimension, we underline the role of the niche not only as a dominant strategic mode for family firms (Salvato & Corbetta, 2013a, 2013b) but also as a core strategy necessary to guarantee the survivability of the business over time. We also borrowed from the international entrepreneurship literature the concept of a portfolio of niches (Magnani & Zucchella, 2019), as a way of coping with uncertainty. The decision makers of long-lasting firms — to stay competitive and survive — progressively redefine their strategic focus and their entrepreneurial culture, by moving from a domestic to an international mindset. We also observed that the dominant position in the niche is strengthened by the lobbying activities of family members, rooted in personal networks built up over the years and generations. Lobbying allows to increase the barriers to entry for competitors. This finding is consistent with the environmental characteristic-related stream of literature on longevity (Kim & Huh, 2015; Konz & Katz, 2000; Montuori, 2000), which asserts that business longevity could be explained as the outcome of the organisation’s dynamic interaction with its environment. Furthermore, the adaptive attitude of decision makers is a key driver for the preservation of family harmony, a steward-oriented governance, and the stability of the family business. It helps the family to manage internal conflicts, avoiding nepotism and favouritism that can threaten the business and negatively influence the succession process. Showing an adaptive attitude and being emotionally detached foster proactive succession planning and preserve both family socioemotional wealth and business longevity. Succession is widely recognized as one of the most critical phases for the survivability of a family firm (Ward, 1997); other critical aspects are the role of successors and their attributes (Daspit et al., 2016; De Massis et al., 2008, 2013; Ibrahim et al., 2009). Cohesion and family commitment have also been explored with longevity and business sustainability (Pieper, 2007). Our study contributes to succession planning literature in this regard (Sharma et al., 2003). We confirmed the multilevel nature of succession planning but also showed the adaptive attitude of decision maker to be a significant component in managing family conflicts, and proactive handling of the succession process.

(iii) underlying the attitude of “fatalience”, emerging as a driver of pivoting, as well as a critical factor in understanding decision making processes regarding longevity within long-lasting family firms. Although long-lasting family firms are recognized to be less innovative than non-family firms, and more conservative compared to younger family businesses, they are ready to change to cope with environmental turbulence, but they also stay grounded on certain pillars that allow them to survive over many generations. Therefore, we contribute to organisational identity and innovation literature in the family business field (De Massis et al., 2016), by theorising that family-controlled businesses exploit the intangible asset of their family and business identity as a pivotal reference to look for new market opportunities. The family business literature on organisational identity (Craig et al., 2008; Zellweger et al., 2010) recognizes the unique set of beliefs, values and practices that differentiates one business from another and defines a unique family firm identity that is shaped not only through the “overlapping” of family and business, but also the transposition of the family identity to the business (ibid). Being known as a long-lasting family brand is a source of competitive advantage that is exploited to promote the business to customers and suppliers, leveraging the image of the family firm as a trustworthy, customer-centric and quality-driven business (Denicolai et al., 2019; Micelotta & Raynard, 2011; Zellweger et al., 2010).

5.2 Managerial and practical implications

This study has managerial and practical implications, specifically in the family business context. First, we explore how individual-related attributes of decision makers managing long-lasting family businesses related to family practices and a set of specific strategies. A firm’s strategy formulation and implementation “mirrors” its executives’ attributes, which are the “pivots” of the organization, thus confirming prior arguments based on the psychological foundations of management in family firms (Picone et al., 2021). This advancement has managerial and practical implications because we believe that recognizing the importance of specific decision makers’ psychological attributes (i.e., adaptive propensity, entrepreneurial personality, resilience) is central to the preservation of firm continuity, ultimately leading to longevity. We invite practitioners to pay attention to the psychological traits of who is managing a long-lasting business and design specific training courses for both family and non-family managers about how to manage a business in the long-run, specifically incentivising proactive, entrepreneurial, and adaptive behaviours. Especially, for family members, we endorse the call for teaching in family firms how to be a leader that can mentally support the psychological weight inheritance of a long-lasting business and the responsibility of preserving the business so that it can be passed to further generations.

Second, we showed that in a stewardship-oriented governance structure, non-family members — especially because they are emotionally close to the family and share its non-economic goals — truly behave as stewards and operate to meet the need of the family, that is sustaining the business so that it can be handed over to future generations. We confirm that a suitable governance mechanism for preserving the longevity of the business does not depend on the origin of the manager (family or non-family) but on its specific attributes (Löhde et al., 2021). Hence, our study’s findings caution family members on the board of directors to take preventive measures aimed at goal alignment with non-family managers and to avoid work deviant behaviours, asymmetry altruism, and patriarchy thus strengthening steward-like mechanisms. We also encourage family members to motivate non-family managers towards a stewardship-oriented governance, by building trust and fostering their interest in the family’s values, history, and heritage through internal corporate marketing communication activities.

6 Conclusion: limitations and avenues for further research

The study presents four limitations: first, we interviewed only one informant per case. This limitation is a disadvantage of the “key informant technique” (Marshall, 1996). On one hand, key informants are unlikely to represent most points of view of all the individuals working in the family business. Furthermore, the identification of the key informant might be biased by the fact that some informants might attract the researcher by improving their status but without having real knowledge or the traits of an ideal key informant. On the other hand, the principal advantage of the key informant technique lies in the quality of the data that can be obtained by interviewing such an informant in a very short time. Further microfoundational studies might explore longevity considering the perspective of those involved in the family business with co-management roles or without top management responsibilities. Another suggestion for further research could be the exploration of emotions and sentiments of who manages a long-lasting business and how they influence the continuity of the business through qualitative and quantitative methods, “going back to the basics” of emotions (Cailluet et al., 2018; Labaki, 2020).

Second, the nine cases are comparable in their common histories but there are sources of heterogeneity that could have affected the results. Case 9 is still run by its founder, even though the younger generations are directly involved in the management of the company. The consistency of this case with the whole sample was carefully analysed: after the coding process, the case was included because we observed no significant differences compared with the other cases. Case 7 and Case 6 were also included, to have the perspective of century-old family businesses currently managed by non-family members, even though the family is still represented in the governing body. This choice allowed us to provide a descriptive model that can be generalised and is not precluded to the demographic characteristics of decision makers that run the family business. These criteria are also consistent with the methodological individualism proper of the microfoundational approach (Arrow, 1994; Elster, 1982). Based on the underlying assumption of individual heterogeneity, the individual was put first, and not the family affiliation. Future quantitative research on longevity might control for demographic variables such as gender, age, role in the family, if the decision maker is a family or a non-family member, but also for firm variables, like size, number of employees and firm governance, for instance comparing cases of ownership and management overlap with cases of no or limited overlap.

Third, we selected a limited number of family firms from a single country, viz. Australia. This preference limited the generalizability of the model to Asian-Pacific countries with English-speaking cultures, especially in terms of the strategic and entrepreneurial behaviour of decision makers. Preeminent scholars (Hofstede, 2001; Schneider & De Meyer, 1991; Smith et al., 2002) have recognized the impact of national culture on the strategic management of companies. A further line of inquiry may address this limitation, comparing the results of the present model in other contexts.

Fourth, we focused our research on a specific, traditional industry. Jaskiewicz et al. (2015) asserted that in more stable and slow contexts, like the wine industry, the chances of surviving are higher than in more hyper-competitive commodity-type industries. So, further studies might seek to test the validity of the multilevel model in different and less traditional industries in which long-lasting family firms are operating.