Entrepreneurial Orientation, Commitment to Learning and Family Business Resilience– Exploring the Moderating Effect of Family-to-Firm Identity Fit

Abstract

The ability of an organisation to endure in the face of critical changes in the business environment and resist disruptions and catastrophic events is a key factor explaining how to be able to manage organisational crises. The resilience of family firms is considered a major capacity that allows them to pass through difficult times and to be sustainable (Miller and Le Breton-Miller, 2005). Although the academic literature argues that family firms are more resilient than non-family firms, the reasons for this presumed superiority are still not clearly identified. In addition, while family firms are a significant component of the economic landscape, research has evidenced variations in this organisational form such that some family firms seem to be more resilient than others. In this research, we highlight two entrepreneurial features that may explain why family firms are resilient in times of crises (and why family firms are heterogeneous in terms of their resilience capacity). We propose a model that aims to test the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and commitment to learning on a family firm’s resilience while considering the moderating effect of a family-to-firm identity fit. More precisely, we first hypothesize that entrepreneurial orientation and commitment to learning positively influence a family firm’s resilience capacity. Then, we suggest that family-to-firm identity fit would negatively moderate these relationships. The empirical investigation is based on a sample of 76 Tunisian family firms. Data were collected through a survey and analysed through Smart PLS modelling. Findings show that the family firm’s commitment to learning is positively associated with family firm’s resilience. However, contrary to expectations, entrepreneurial orientation has no significant effect on family firm’s resilience. Finally and unexpectedly, we found that the more the family is oriented towards preserving family members’ identification with the firm the more commitment to learning would positively influence a family firm’s resilience.