IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v210y2026ics0148296326001529.html

Balancing relational and financial approaches in family firm acquisitions: A multiple case study investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Dredge, Darin A.
  • Madden, Laura T.
  • Pieper, Torsten M.
  • Smith, Anne
  • Astrachan, Joseph

Abstract

Family firms often pursue both financial and relational objectives that may influence the firm’s strategic orientation and decision making. We know little about how alternative financial and relational objectives affect family firms’ acquisition behavior, and the extant research typically places these objectives at odds with one another. To increase our understanding, we abductively studied 11 family firms representing diverse industries and a total of 51 completed acquisitions. Paradoxically, and contrary to the extant literature, the family firms in our sample combined financial and relational orientations throughout the acquisition process: in motivating acquisition decisions, in balancing and reconciling financial and relational objectives during the acquisition process, and in interpreting how their processes ultimately affected acquisition outcomes. Trust- and relationship-building behaviors emerged as an important driver behind these dynamics. We discuss implications for balancing a financial and relational approach to the acquisition process through this unique set of firms and acquisition experiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Dredge, Darin A. & Madden, Laura T. & Pieper, Torsten M. & Smith, Anne & Astrachan, Joseph, 2026. "Balancing relational and financial approaches in family firm acquisitions: A multiple case study investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:210:y:2026:i:c:s0148296326001529
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296326001529
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116118?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

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:jbrese:v:210:y:2026:i:c:s0148296326001529. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    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.