IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/erjour/v11y2021i3p177-189n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When is Ambivalence Good for Family Firms? Understanding the Impact of Family Managers’ Emotional Ambivalence on Decision Making

Author

Listed:
  • Firfiray Shainaz

    (University of Aberdeen Business School, MacRobert Building, King Street, Aberdeen AB24 5UA, UK)

  • Gomez-Mejia Luis R.

    (Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA)

Abstract

It has been suggested in the family business literature that the pursuit of socioemotional wealth (SEW) has both a bright and dark side and these conflicting priorities can have a negative impact on the quality of decisions made by family managers. This paper presents a model which recognizes that ambivalence emanating from socioemotional wealth may also lead to high calibre decision-making under certain contexts. In particular, we explain how emotional ambivalence can affect the decision-making abilities of family managers. Although emotional complexity and the resulting ambivalence is seen as an undesirable situation, we argue that this could also result in positive outcomes under certain circumstances. More specifically, emotional ambivalence prompts leaders to adopt a broader perspective and consider several alternatives before reaching a decision, hence enhancing decision-making quality. However, we acknowledge that emotional ambivalence may also lead to an overly restrictive focus on the family’s interests occasionally leading to inferior family-centric decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Firfiray Shainaz & Gomez-Mejia Luis R., 2021. "When is Ambivalence Good for Family Firms? Understanding the Impact of Family Managers’ Emotional Ambivalence on Decision Making," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 177-189, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:erjour:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:177-189:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/erj-2021-0181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2021-0181
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/erj-2021-0181?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:erjour:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:177-189:n:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.