Abstract
Promoting the family behind the family business can often bring benefits. Consumers can feel better about a product or service – and more likely to trust it and buy it -- if they know a “family” is behind it. Family-based brands can also make customer relations easier to manage and strengthen the competitive advantage of a firm. Some brands advertise their family business origins clearly on product packaging, advertising or service delivery (e.g., SC Johnson and William Grant & Sons), while others highlight their family-based brands when they are sold to non-family owners. With all these benefits attached to family-based brands, we really have to think about the flip side: the dangers posed when the family image gets tarnished. Scandals, defined as “a publicized instance of transgression which runs counter to social norms” (Piazza & Jourdan, 2018, p.167), can wreak havoc on both the family and the firm.