One of the most significant challenges facing family firms is how to successfully manage succession from one generation of leaders to the next. In this paper, we contribute to existing understandings ...of this complex and difficult process by exploring how successors use family business succession narratives to legitimate their succession. Building on a case study of Alessi, a family–owned Italian design firm, we draw on the literature on organizational narratives to develop a framework for understanding family business succession narratives and present a typology of some of the narrative strategies that can be used during succession. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical ramifications of a narrative view of succession in family firms.
Entrepreneurship scholars have devoted increasing attention to formalization (i.e., a firm's transition from informality to compliance with formal institutions). However, little is known about the ...actual process through which informal firms transition to pursue opportunities in a fully legally compliant way. This transition poses formidable challenges, especially in fields in which informality rather than formality is widespread. To understand how firms transition to full formality and manage the related institutional challenges in such contexts, we conduct a longitudinal, inductive case study of an informal firm, confiscated from the Mafia in Italy, and examine how it succeeded in operating formally in a field in which informality regulated transactions and was accepted across society. The findings suggest that formalizing in such contexts is a two-phase process that entails first extricating the enterprise from the influence of informal institutions and then cultivating formal institutions in the field to increase the firm's legitimacy. The study contributes to the literature on formalization, entrepreneurship, and institutional work by advancing the understanding of formalization as a dynamic and entrepreneurial endeavor that requires specific institutional work at different points in time to succeed.
•Formalization process requires different institutional works overtime.•Challenges to formalization depend on the characteristics of the institutional field.•Formalization may reintroduce the liability of newness.•Inductive, longitudinal studies unveil the complexity of formalization.
To understand how organizations combine conflicting institutional logics strategically to create and pursue new market opportunities, we conducted an indepth longitudinal study of the multiple ...efforts of the Italian manufacturer of household goods Alessi to combine the logics of industrial manufacturing and cultural production. Over three decades, Alessi developed three different strategies to combine normative elements of the two logics, using each strategy to envision and pursue different market opportunities. By combining the logics of industrial manufacturing and cultural production, Alessi was able to envision new possibilities for value creation and to enact them through innovation in product design. The three strategies triggered a common set of mechanisms through which the purposeful combining of logics enabled the pursuit of opportunity, while each strategy structured the process differently. We develop a theoretical model linking the development of recombinant strategies to the dynamic restructuring of organizational agency and the related capacity to create and pursue new market opportunities. Our findings and theoretical insights advance understanding of the processes through which organizations challenge taken-for-granted beliefs and practices to create new market opportunities, use logics as resources to enable embedded agency, and design hybrid organizational arrangements.
FISH OUT OF WATER TRACEY, PAUL; DALPIAZ, ELENA; PHILLIPS, NELSON
Academy of Management journal,
10/2018, Letnik:
61, Številka:
5
Journal Article
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We draw on institutional theory to study a common type of new venture creation that has been neglected in the literature: the translation of an existing organizational form from a different—and ...misaligned—institutional context. To do so, we conducted an in-depth case study of H-Farm, an Italian venture that was founded as a business incubator, a type of organization that first emerged in Silicon Valley and other U.S. technology regions. Our study illuminates the specific configuration of legitimacy pressures inherent in this type of entrepreneurship, and theorizes the strategies that entrepreneurs can enact to address them: local authentication work, category authentication work, and dual optimal distinctiveness work. We also show that the legitimacy pressures experienced by entrepreneurs may vary significantly as ventures mature, and challenge the notion of a specific “legitimacy threshold” that new ventures are required to reach. Finally, our model conceptualizes translation as an iterative, dynamic, and ongoing accomplishment rather than a “one off” activity with clear beginning and end points.
Research summary: Constructing narratives of transformative change is an important but challenging practice through which strategy-makers attempt to influence acceptance of an ongoing transformation. ...To understand whether and how strategy-makers can construct a steady influx of captivating narratives of transformative change, we analyzed how one noted strategy-maker assisted the successful transformation of his organization over three decades by orchestrating the production of change narratives. Our analysis reveals that the strategy-maker constructed and reconstructed meanings of change over time using three sets of distinct but interconnected narrative practices. We develop a dynamic model linking the simultaneous mobilization of these practices to strategymakers' ability to harness the persistent tension between novelty and familiarity in a transformative change, and thereby, win endorsement from key audiences. Managerial summary: How can storytelling be used to influence acceptance of an ongoing organizational transformation? In this article, we try to answer this question by examining how, over three decades, Italian company Alessi documented its transformation from a manufacturer of kitchen steel utensils to a producer of a variety of household objects purchased also for their symbolic value. The leader behind Alessi's transformation, Alberto Alessi, orchestrated such storytelling effort, targeting employees, customers, retailers, and visitors to Alessi exhibitions. Our findings uncover how stories can be used to win audiences' endorsement of change through narrative practices aimed at: (a) constructing a collective memory of change, (b) depicting change as a novel but coherent departure from the past, and (c) portraying change as a transcendent endeavor.
Our study was motivated by the growing influence in cultural sociology and organizational research of the view of culture as a "toolkit," from which individuals draw resources flexibly to develop ...strategies of action that address different circumstances. To investigate if and how organizations can also use new and diverse cultural resources, we undertook a historical case study of the incorporation of new cultural resources in the cultural repertoire of the Italian manufacturer of household products Alessi. Through in-depth analysis of four rounds of incorporation of new cultural resources, we develop a robust theoretical model that relates the use of new cultural resources to the development of unconventional strategies and strategic versatility. We find that cultural repertoire enrichment and organizational identity redefinition are two core mechanisms that facilitate this process. The model contributes novel theoretical understanding regarding the use of cultural resources in strategy formation and change.
This study explores how organizations experience and respond to identity challenges that arise due to conflicting interpretations of their past. Drawing on a case study of a fintech venture, we offer ...a process model that illuminates the unfolding of "temporal identity complexity," a sensemaking process that involves different members developing conflicting understandings of how the past undermines the organizational identity. Our model also reveals how leaders can restore members' beliefs in the organizational identity through "temporal synergizing," a sensegiving process that recombines conflicting interpretations of the past to support desired identity claims in the present and future. In contrast with prior research that has emphasized the need to construe a sense of identity continuity over time, we show how organizations can instead capitalize on perceived discontinuity in their past to reaffirm their identity. We discuss this and other contributions to research on organizational identity, focusing on its threads on sensemaking and rhetorical history. This includes exploring the important role that temporality and emotions play in organizational identity reconstruction.
We aim to highlight a type of cultural entrepreneurship, which has received scant attention by prior scholarship, and consists of deploying morally tainted cultural resources, i.e., resources that ...some audiences assess as going against accepted principles of morality. We argue that this type of cultural entrepreneurship is a double-edged sword and explain how it may ignite active opposition of offended audiences, as well as attract supportive audiences. We delineate a research agenda to shed light on whether, how, and with what consequences cultural entrepreneurs navigate such a tension - in particular how they (1) mobilise morally tainted cultural resources and with what effect on offended audiences; (2) deal with the consequent legitimacy challenges; and (3) transform moral taint into 'coolness' to enhance their venture's distinctiveness.
Abstract The symbol is one of the key concepts in organization and management scholarship. Yet as indicated by the authors in this debate, it has not been adequately conceptualized and as such it ...remains rather blunt and opaque. In what is the first systematic conceptual debate on this topic, the authors of this Point‐Counterpoint debate seek to address this issue. The respective essays, despite marked differences in their approaches, offer novel and thought‐provoking accounts of what the symbol is and how it works. Taken together, these contributions offer a series of exciting new avenues to guide and redirect future research in this area.
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