A home in the ocean: how identity shapes social purpose in a small family business
通过百年家族企业Peter Café Sport的在线民族志案例，研究组织身份如何作为生成性资源在危机中平衡社会与经济逻辑，揭示创始人社会参与在数十年后仍可被激活，强化企业社区锚定角色。
This paper examines how organizational identity evolves to sustain social purpose in long-lived family firms. Drawing on an online ethnographic case study of Peter Café Sport – a century-old maritime family business in the Azores – we trace how founding narratives, legacy-based commitments, and deep relational networks shaped responses during the COVID-19 crisis. Our findings show that organizational identity, often viewed as a stabilizing force, can also be a generative resource for adaptive action, promoting the balance between social and economic logics even in times of disruption. We demonstrate that the founder’s social involvement not only persists but can be reactivated decades after inception, enabling the reaffirmation of the firm’s enduring role as a community anchor. By explaining how hybrid economic – social logics sustain across organizational life stages, the study advances understanding of social entrepreneurship in crisis, emphasizing the role of family organizational identity beyond start-up contexts, and deepens insight into how small family enterprises preserve and reinterpret their social mission over time.