The complex role of familiness in dealing with resistance to strategic change

Purpose Using a social capital lens, we explore the complex role of familiness in how Family Businesses (FBs) manage resistance to strategic change. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a qualitative approach based on 16 semi-structured interviews (analysed abductively) with family and non-family managers in four case studies of FBs in Egypt that are actively facing resistance to strategic change. Findings The research uncovers 11 specific familiness resources across relational, cognitive and structural dimensions that both enable and inhibit managers' ability to manage resistance. We describe reinforcement, mitigation and restriction interactions among those familiness resources, and identify two primary sources of paradox: socio-emotional complexities and commitment to continuity. We also explain how FBs manage these paradoxes, through power dynamics and entrepreneurial perseverance in the founder's aspirations. Practical implications For FB owners, transmitting their entrepreneurial spirit and legitimacy and authority to successors is crucial for FB continuity. Successors, in turn, need to temper their entrepreneurial drive with a long-term orientation, and recognize the right time to advance. Originality/value The research contributes to FB research by: (1) exploring the underlying mechanisms that link familiness to managers' ability to deal with resistance to change; (2) showing how familiness resources are interdependent and describing interactional effects and (3) examining the paradoxes created by these interactions and explaining how FBs navigate these paradoxes.