Abstract
Digitalization is drastically changing every aspect of our daily lives. Especially the augmentation of highly disruptive technologies and their power to radically change society and businesses, have strong impact on the economy and on companies worldwide. Family firms - locked in their multigenerational long-entrenched structures, perceived as conservative, less innovative and unwilling to break away from their traditional and proven ways of doing business - find themselves under serious innovation pressure. Despite the unquestioned importance of digital innovation, the rapidly growing research on family firm innovation has mainly focused on traditional/analogue types of innovation, leaving digital innovation largely overlooked so far. This cumulative thesis comprises three main studies about digital innovation in family business. Building on three different data sets and three different methodological approaches, this doctoral thesis explores this intersection and give answers to the many questions arising in the digital age. The first paper comprises a single case study which aims to illuminate the important role of employees for the success of (digital) innovation answering the question of how a long-term oriented family firm can nurture its employees while pursuing innovation. The second paper comprises a multiple case study on the intergenerational knowledge transfer in times of digital innovation. It investigates the unique knowledge base of family firms and gives an understanding about the family’s as well as the workforce’s knowledge resources by answering the question of how family firms can manage intergenerational knowledge transfer in times of digital innovation. The third paper - based on longitudinal data analysis of family and non-family firms in a cross country setting - investigates the technology resource-performance relation and the moderating effect of family ownership and family management on this relationship. In particular, we consider the impact of family influence on the linkage between a firm’s Internet of Things (IoT) technology resource endowment and its performance. The findings of this dissertation improve the understanding of digital innovation in family firms. Each paper independently contributes both to the academic debate and to the vast practical and political discourse around digital innovation in family business.