The strategic realignment of paradoxical family and business goals in family business: A rhetorical history perspective
研究了家族企业如何通过修辞史策略动态平衡家庭与商业目标之间的矛盾，基于意大利包装企业Alpha的案例，揭示了修辞史在缓解矛盾中的作用。
Family firms are paradoxical by nature due to the interplay of two distinct goal systems: the family and the firm. These systems involve nested tensions that can create apparent paradoxes over time. Taking a rhetorical history lens, we explore how family firms can dynamically produce temporal equilibria between goal systems through the strategic use of history. Empirically, we investigate the emergence and development of two apparent paradoxes unfolding through the history of the growth of Alpha, an Italian family firm in the packaging industry. Our findings suggest that rhetorical history can alleviate the tensions emergent from the paradoxical goal systems of family businesses. Our research provides a unique contribution by revealing the emergence and agentic process of the co-construction of rhetorical history, which involves multiple agencies from both family and non-family employees. Moreover, such co-created rhetorical history can dynamically produce temporal equilibria in family business’s persistent paradoxical goal systems.