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Capella, Francesca, Manelli, Luca 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9305-2090, Frattini, Federico, Kotlar, Josip and Chiesa, Vittorio
(2024)
Navigating the politics of innovation in family firms: The role of political capital.
Journal of Product Innovation Management, 41 (3).
pp. 548-573.
ISSN 0737-6782
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Abstract
In family firms, innovation poses distinct challenges due to the social complexity resulting from the intertwining of the family and business systems. While prior research has focused primarily on the powerful role of the dominant family coalition in leadership positions, much less attention has been paid to middle managers who must navigate the social complexity in family firms to implement management innovations. Through a multicase study of two highly innovative family firms, we theorize and demonstrate how middle managers engage in coalition building to address the social complexity in family firms when pursuing management innovation by creating a new organizational unit dedicated to managing innovation at the corporate level. Our study shows that middle managers change the social evaluation of the transfer of political capital from the dominant family coalition through enforcement and detachment. Subsequently, they convert, invest, and then mobilize different sources of political capital to gain power through pragmatic persuasion and altruistic evangelizing. Finally, we find that the dominant family coalition employs two distinct modes of political stewardship with respect to family and nonfamily middle managers.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Product Innovation Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Product Development & Management Association. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | dominant coalition,family business,family firm innovation,management innovation,political capital,power,strategy and management,management of technology and innovation ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1408 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Jun 2026 16:14 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Jun 2026 05:32 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103496 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/jpim.12717 |
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