Playing the wild cards: Antecedents of family firm resilience

The purpose of this study is to explore how family firms respond to wild cards. We aim to capture the under-standing of family firm owners/managers of what wild cards are in terms of frequency, kind, and impact. We also examine how familiness and entrepreneurial orientation form the resilience and survival of family firms when facing wild cards. The scope of our attention is limited to extreme events so far overlooked in the family firm resilience literature, and the empirical context of our study involves the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings show that the response to wild cards depends on the understanding of those extreme situations that family firms managers/owners develop. Deep time horizon is relevant in developing a useful understanding of wild cards, and generational involvement helps to socially construct it. After developing an understanding, family firm man-agers/owners use decision making preferences in selecting their response to wild cards. Our study offers a behavioral take on family firms resilience, and provides a fine grained view incorporating behavioral constructs.

Playing the wild cards: Antecedents of family firm resilience

The purpose of this study is to explore how family firms respond to wild cards. We aim to capture the understanding of family firm owners/managers of what wild cards are in terms of frequency, kind, and impact. We also examine how familiness and entrepreneurial orientation form the resilience and survival of family firms when facing wild cards. The scope of our attention is limited to extreme events so far overlooked in the family firm resilience literature, and the empirical context of our study involves the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings show that the response to wild cards depends on the understanding of those extreme situations that family firms managers/owners develop. Deep time horizon is relevant in developing a useful understanding of wild cards, and generational involvement helps to socially construct it. After developing an understanding, family firm managers/owners use decision making preferences in selecting their response to wild cards. Our study offers a behavioral take on family firms resilience, and provides a fine grained view incorporating behavioral constructs. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

In search of virtuous learning circles: absorptive capacity and its antecedents in the education sector

Purpose This study aims to identify context-specific antecedents to schools' absorptive capacity (AC) and to show how those can enact "a virtuous learning circle." Design/methodology/approach The study uses a mixed method: an exploration based on semi-structured interviews with educational experts;the development of a measurement scale and a partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the impact of the antecedents. Findings The results yielded four empirically-grounded antecedents and their measurement scales, namely, prior knowledge, employees' skills, educational projects and interactions with the environment (Studies one and two). All antecedents are significantly and positively related to AC processes (study three). Using the organizational learning theory perspective, the results have been interpreted as an AC "virtuous learning circle." Practical implications With increasing pressures to adapt, a case of which was the COVID-19 pandemic, schools can greatly benefit from absorbing knowledge flows. This suggests the construction a favourable environment for AC. To this end, the individual (employees' prior knowledge and skills), organizational (educational projects) and institutional level of managerial action (interactions with the environment) can be effective when create a recursive organizational learning circle. In addition, this study offers an expert-validated measurement scale for self-assessment of a school's specific contingencies, and thus, for planning of punctual interventions to develop AC. Originality/value This study advances the existing body of knowledge management in the educational context by rigorously identifying and validating a scale for measuring the antecedents of AC and developing an interpretive approach to the AC "virtuous circle."