Building resilience in family firms: state capital integration and slack accumulation

Purpose This study explores how Chinese family firms build organizational resilience amid environmental uncertainties by integrating state-owned capital. It examines the role of financial slack accumulation as a strategic pathway to address secondary dependencies arising from state ownership, and how active family management amplifies these effects. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on resource dependence theory, organizational slack literature, and family governance research, the study develops and tests hypotheses using panel data from 2,292 listed Chinese family firms (12,029 firm-year observations) over 2010–2020. Organizational resilience is captured by the severity of performance losses during the COVID-19 crisis (2020 performance relative to 2017–2019 baseline). Regression analyses, including panel regressions and OLS, are employed, with propensity score matching for robustness. Findings The results indicate that state ownership positively influences the accumulation of financial slack, which in turn enhances organizational resilience during the COVID-19 shock. Active family involvement in top management strengthens both the effect of state ownership on financial slack accumulation and the subsequent deployment of that slack to build resilience. Originality/value The study extends resource dependence theory by highlighting the long-term management of secondary dependencies through internal slack accumulation. It reconciles debates on slack utility by demonstrating its value in high-stakes crises under hybrid ownership. Additionally, it provides a nuanced view of how family and state governance can align to foster resilience in transitional economies, offering novel insights into mixed-ownership structures in family firms.