To Be or Not to Be: How Family Firms Manage Family and Commercial Logics in Succession

We draw on the institutional logics perspective to understand different approaches that family firms can use to manage the process of succession. Based on the analysis of 21 case studies of family firms in Germany, we identify four different ways of managing potentially conflicting family and commercial logics that are associated with four different succession processes. Our findings contribute to the family firm literature by improving our knowledge of the heterogeneity of family firms and by explaining different ways that the family logic can influence firm behavior. Moreover, we contribute to institutional theory by showing the importance of filtering mechanisms for organizations that must respond to coexisting logics.