Introduction

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is a) to introduce the concepts of family business (section 1.1), grounded theory (section 1.2), and organizational ecology (section 1.3); b) to explain how grounded theory will be used to develop an evolutionary theory of family business based on organizational ecology (section 1.4); and c) to provide a bridge to chapter two’s in-depth review of the developments and uses of those concepts (section 1.5). In these five sections (1.1–1.5), those insights from Henry Mintzberg’s talk at the 1996 Academy of Management Annual Meetings (Cincinnati, August 9–13, 1996), which are particularly applicable to their respective topics will be presented.

... this is the problem with the value of discourse in comparison with intuition ... in that language is a convenient, pragmatic method that yet debilitates the realization and adaequatio of the cognition, which hence dilutes the complete awareness ... (Teilhard de Chardin SJ, 1916)