Reading between the lines: innovation strategies in small and medium-sized family firms. An exploratory study

This chapter contributes to strategic management studies in family firms by focusing on innovation strategies as drivers to guarantee firm survival across generations. Specifically, built on the construct of family business innovation posture and based on the content analysis of 10 small and medium family firm narratives, this chapter identifies the figure of the father as the cornerstone in whom innovation strategies have their origin and their evolution as firm-driven, family-driven, and/or market-driven. The chapter proposes a model that highlights the dimensions of family heterogeneity and provides new insights into the relationship between the role of the father figure and three drivers related to family business innovation: product and production quality, past knowledge, and risk-taking propensity.