Family Owned Business Institute

Research Scholar's Abstracts 2006 - Franz Kellermanns, Kimberly Eddleston

Toward a Stewardship Theory of Family Firms
Franz W. Kellermanns, Kimberly A. Eddleston
2006

Family businesses encounter special problems concerning how they make strategic decisions, process information, and interact with others because of the double role that family members play: both as members of the business and as members of the family. Franz W. Kellermanns and Kimberly A. Eddleston are focusing on this unique interaction between the family and the firm, particularly on family-specific resources that lead to a competitive advantage. This is one of the first research projects that directly examines how 'familiness' can contribute to a firm's performance while also focusing on the success of innovative, growth-oriented family firms, which is almost non-existent.

The research project focuses on the positive aspects of 'familiness' and applies the stewardship theory and the resource-based view to the study of family firms. This will provide insight into how family-specific resources need to be harnessed and deployed so as to contribute to family firm success. The research questions underlying this project are: "How do family-specific resources contribute to family firm performance" and "How can familiness contribute to a family firm's competitive advantage?"