Family Firm Resilience: Ex ante and Ex post perspectives

Abstract

[EN] This dissertation investigates the organizational resilience of SMEs through the lenses of ex ante and ex post perspectives. Specifically, it examines how family SMEs, compared to non-family SMEs, build resilience processes and how these processes relate to resilience outcomes. Given that the field of family firm resilience is still growing, in Chapter 2 we have presented a comprehensive review of the literature on organizational resilience, specifically the current state of knowledge regarding resilience within family firms. This review has allowed us to elucidate key gaps in the field. Building upon this, we have subsequently explored various resilience processes, addressing previous calls from researchers (Duchek, 2020; Yilmaz et al., 2024) and thereby deepening our understanding in this area. In chapter 3, we explore organizational resilience, integrating the ex ante and ex post perspectives. The former includes capabilities developed before and during disruptions, and the latter examines resilience outcomes through organizational performance. We examine whether anticipation of crises impacts the capabilities deployed during crises (absorption, renewal, and learning) and study the role of these capabilities in determining the outcomes. Our findings support a positive association between ex ante resilience capabilities, demonstrating that anticipation activities such as risk identification and evaluation enhance organizational preparedness and strengthen the ability to face and overcome difficult situations as they arise. In turn, we show that anticipation alone is insufficient to secure positive outcomes. Instead, it must be complemented by the ability to absorb shocks, renew itself, and learn during crises, which act as the real drivers of performance during turbulent periods. In chapter 4, we investigate how family SMEs build resilience processes, with particular focus on the capabilities deployed during disruptions: absorption, renewal, and learning. Thereafter, we test whether family SMEs with a high emphasis on socioemotional wealth (SEW) exhibit greater proactivity in deploying resilience capabilities. These relationships were tested in two ways: directly and indirectly through slack resources, expecting that more resources would have a positive influence. The findings indicate that family SMEs exhibit particular efficacy in implementing renewal activities and deriving valuable lessons from past crises. In addition, they demonstrate better ability to absorb shocks through the possession and mobilization of slack resources, underscoring the importance of extra resources in mitigating the initial impacts of crises and outperforming non-family SMEs. Slack resources were also found to enhance renewal and learning capabilities; nevertheless, they are not required, highlighting the intrinsic ability of family SMEs to be flexible, adjust to new conditions, and derive insights from past experiences. Similarly, the findings show that family SMEs prioritizing SEW are positively related to all three capabilities, directly to renewal and learning capabilities, and indirectly to absorption capability. Chapter 5 delineates the resilience process, comprising two principal dimensions: the formalization of the process, facilitated by mechanisms such as regular risk assessment meetings and the allocation of human and technological resources, and the intensity of the resilience practices enacted. We assert a positive correlation between these characteristics, suggesting that the formalization of risk management enhances the execution of resilience measures. Moreover, we suggest that family SMEs have less institutionalized risk management and a higher use of resilience methods in comparison to non-family SMEs. Our findings substantiate the notion that increased formalization of risk management promotes the use of resilience techniques in times of crisis. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that family-owned and non-family-owned SMEs exhibit no significant differences in formalizing risk management; however, family-owned SMEs demonstrate a higher level of proactivity in adopting resilience measures. This contrast indicates that family SMEs engage in a distinctive resilience process, marked by enhanced proactive responses rather than systematic, codified risk management.