How Family, Business, and Community Logics Shape Family Firm Behavior and “Rules of the Game” in an Organizational Field

Abstract

The relationships between family firms and their institutional contexts are critical to family firm legitimacy and sustainability. However, we still know little about how these relationships influence firm behavior. We draw on the institutional literature—institutional logics in particular—to investigate the behavior of different types of wineries within the Okanagan region in Western Canada. We analyze how family, business, and community logics guide firm behavior, and how different combinations of logics lead firms to take action that modifies the field to support their own legitimacy and sustainability.