E4C May - Conflict management in family firms

Conflict management in family firms: research and practice

Family firms are an important contributor to the European economy. Across the region, around 60% of private companies are family-owned (European Commission, 2021). Family enterprises are complex entities where family, business, and ownership arenas converge, creating a context where conflict easily emerges (Caputo et al., 2018; Frank et al., 2011; Pieper et al., 2013). Moreover, in the current pandemic context European family firms are facing unexpected changes which implicitly require to deal with crisis and conflict (Kraus et al., 2020).

Recent works have highlighted the opportunities to dig into the uniqueness of conflict management in family firms (e.g., Alvarado-Alvarez et al., 2020; Caputo et al., 2018; Frank et al., 2011). Although it is not despicable the importance of conflict in the demise of family firms, family ties also root the emergence of trust and constructive conflict which may convert dissents and controversies into a source of innovation and outperforming (Alvarado-Alvarez et al., 2020; Bigliardi & Galati, 2018; Elgoibar et al., 2016; Kanadlı et al., 2020). Precisely, the emergence of constructive conflict reports interesting opportunities to enhance the survival, transformation, and sustainability of the family firms in the long-term (Alvarado-Alvarez et al., 2020). In this session, we aim to bridge the gap between research and practice in the field of conflict management in family firms as well as to find new opportunities for research.

Call for papers

The presenters are encouraged to send their contributions about the intersection between family firms and conflict management from a broad perspective (e.g., family conflict, organizational conflict, succession). Topics suggested but not limited to types of conflict, conflict behavior, negotiation, trust, work-family conflict, constructive conflict management, crisis management, and resilience in the ground of family enterprises. Both papers, research proposals, and intervention programs apply for the event.

The abstracts have a word limit of 200 words. Please send your contribution to the e-mail: info@e4conflict.com

Deadline: May 10th

References

Alvarado-Alvarez, C., Armadans, I., & Parada, M. J. (2020). Tracing the Roots of Constructive Conflict Management in Family Firms. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 13(2), 105-126. https://doi.org/10.1111/ncmr.12164

Bigliardi, B., & Galati, F. (2018). Family firms and collaborative innovation: Present debates and future research. European Journal of Innovation Management, 21(2), 334-358. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-05-2017-0054

Caputo, A., Marzi, G., Pellegrini, M., & Rialti, R. (2018). Conflict Management in Family Businesses: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review. International Journal of Conflict Management, 29(4),519-542. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-02-2018-0027

Elgoibar P., Munduate L., Euwema M. (2016) Building Trust and Constructive Conflict Management in Organizations. In: Elgoibar P., Euwema M., Munduate L. (eds) Building Trust and Constructive Conflict Management in Organizations. Industrial Relations & Conflict Management (pp. 1-13). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31475-4_1

European Comission (2021).https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/supporting-entrepreneurship/family-business_en

Frank, H., Kessler, A., Nosé, L., & Suchy, D. (2011). Conflicts in family firms: state of the art and perspectives for future research. Journal of Family Business Management, 1(2), 130-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/20436231111167219

Kanadlı, S. B., Torchia, M., Gabaldon, P., & Calabrò, A. (2020). Effects of Task Conflict on Board Task Performance in Family Firms: The Importance of Board Openness. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 11 (2) 100350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2020.100350

Kraus, S., Clauss, T., Breier, M., Gast, J., Zardini, A., & Tiberius, V. (2020). The economics of COVID-19: initial empirical evidence on how family firms in five European countries cope with the corona crisis. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 26 (5) 1067-1092. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-04-2020-0214

Pieper, T. M., Astrachan, J. H., & Manners, G. E. (2013). Conflict in family business: Common metaphors and suggestions for intervention. Family Relations, 62(3), 490-500. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12011