Priorities, practices and strategies in successful and failing family businesses: an elaboration and test of the configuration perspective

Scholars from the configuration school have suggested that businesses do well only when they are well-configured. Specifically, they have argued that businesses must first, match organizational priorities and practices to their chosen strategy; second, strike an appropriate balance so that no priority reaches dangerous extremes; and third, avoid gaps in priorities and practices that might be associated with such extremes.We will argue that these tenets have not yet been developed or explored in a sufficiently broad and systematic way. Using a conceptual framework developed by Miller and Le Breton-Miller (2005), this research undertakes to do that in order to assess the relevance of the configurational view in the context of large successful and failing family businesses.