Business research assignment

Harshit Panday
2002091
IM B
Topic- Paradoxes and Innovation in Family Firms: The Role of Paradoxical Thinking

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Objective:-
Definition of Stewardship is a process of entangled & emergent power relations rising in a situation of constant
negotiation between competing interests, representations of the organization and its governance. The processes is
characterized by the three interrelated concept of contradictions, paradoxes and tensions. Objective of paper is not
seeking to test hypotheses but to challenges confronting managers who sought to cultivate and embed the values of
stewardship in the younger members of their enterprising family. Its focuses on gaining richly nuanced knowledge
about the variability of stewardship than in challenging some specific aspect of stewardship theory.

General findings:-
Methods:- The study considers the case of company named Familia, a diversified family business group in
southern part of the European Union. Company has international presence in some continents, including the US.
Each family branch is represented by the siblings.

Data was collected structurally, formally and mainly through family gathering that occurred in the first quarter of
2014. Meetings were held with the CEO and executive and non-executive board members, as well as some semi-
structured formal interviews with 16 members of the owning family. Through comparison, initial categories were
consolidated into six second order themes of intermediate abstraction and then, finally reduced to three major
aggregate theoretical dimensions that captured the informants’ deep views related to the self-indexing of the
paradoxical conceptual domains of identity, inclusion and purpose.

Paradoxes of identity:- This dimension consist of persistent oppositions between the family and economic
dimensions of the firm and between present & future generations. Two second-order themes that were rendered are:
1. the construction of the organizational ethos ,2. the choice of a temporal frame articulating the timrorganizational
identity.

Paradoxes of inclusion:- Paper identified two main intermediate second-level themes inclusion: 1. participation
intensity and 2. representation of voice . Also feelings of inclusion & exclusion were thus closely linked as two
sides of the same coin.
Paradoxes of purpose:- 1), while some informants defended the view that the group should emphasize merit,
others appreciated the importance of care. 2), two initial categories emerged as opposed protocol as an
organizational constitution, versus the interpretation of protocol as open and revisable.

Limitations:- Data were collected during the serious economic crisis of the Eurozone that occurred after the Global
Financial Crisis of 2008. The sectors within which company operates may affect the interplay between stewardship
and non-stewardship approaches and firms operating in other sectors, facing different challenges, may behave
differently.

Conclusion:-
The family business literature tends to divide family companies into two, those run according to the principles of
stewardship and those that are potentially vulnerable to short-termism . In this paper, we found that dualism can be
textured with duality-influenced, paradoxical theorizing: in the same organization, opposing agents and accounts
coexist, negotiate, and hybridize, rendering stewardship a rising complex process, rich in paradoxical nuance.

Paper 2

Topic- STEWARDSHIP AS PROCESS: A PARADOX PERSPECTIVE

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Objective:-The divergent goals, views and values of these systems often create a tug-of-war between three,
paradoxical tensions of family firms: tradition versus change, family liquidity versus business growth, & founder
control versus successor autonomy. Paper propose that these tensions may fuel innovative behavior, and its
intensity depends on a leader’s capacity for paradoxical thinking. Paper unpack this proposition by examining
theoretical bases & developing testable hypotheses.

H1: In family firms, perceived paradoxical tensions negatively influence innovative behavior.

H2: In family firms, paradoxical thinking is positively related to innovative behavior.

H3: In family firms, paradoxical thinking moderates the relationship between perceived paradoxical tensions and
innovative behavior.

General findings:-

Sample:- The sample consists of 93 family firm executives. Profile data showed that the responding executives had
an average tenure of 23 years. Firm profiles showed an average size of 375 employees, the average ownership for
executive respondents was 97%, and average firm age of 55 years. Furthermore, respondents self-identified as
family firms & are deemed to be representative of the family firm population.

Methods:- Paper applied a multi-stage research design that includes scale development & hypothesis testing. The
scale development process followed endorsed practices for establishing reliability, discriminant validity, predictive
validity, content, and convergent. Starting scales were revised based on feedback from an expert’s consisting of
three academic & three lay experts. Then in next step it examines the factor loadings, eigenvalues, and screen plots
for all three constructs. Moreover, discriminant validity was confirmed as the chi-square difference tests of paired
constructs holds for all factors.

Final Measure Validity Assessment:- Overall, there were 17 items predicted to form three factors that required 38
parameters to be estimated. However, the sample size with 93 units fell short of the recommended five observations
to one parameter. Therefore, individual factor analyses is conducted for each latent construct through this approach
reduced the number of parameters are required for estimation and ensuring statistical rigor.

Control variables.:- Paper has included four control variables which impact a firm’s innovative behavior:-
industry, firm age, firm size, & generation.

Conclusion:- Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis in SPSS 21.0, four models were created. Support for
hypothesis one that paradoxical tensions negatively impacts innovative behavior was found. Hypothesis two,
proposing that paradoxical thinking is positively related to innovative behavior was also supported and hypothesis
three was not supported.

Research found that the founding generation reported & recognized paradoxical tensions more than later
generations. Research demonstrates that paradoxical tensions permeate family firms. Moreover, it finds that these
tensions negatively impact innovative behavior. Findings also suggest that paradoxical thinking enhances
innovative behavior which confirms the importance of leadership capability. Study also illustrates the paradox of
knowledge – the more we know, the more we know we do not know. For future implications large sample research
is suggested, with more statistical power, as well as with added contextual variables in order to unpack the role of
paradoxical thinking in family firms.