Openness" has become an established norm in the contemporary business environment. However, despite the crucial importance of boundaries and boundary work in organization and management theory, openness—as opening up boundaries of family firms and entrepreneurial families in collaborating with...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been and is currently still affecting organizations of all sizes and in many industries, and research still lacks profound insights into the managerial implications of this phenomenon. In particular, it is unclear how family firms, which are the economic backbone of...

The COVID-19 pandemic presented great challenges, but also opportunities, to SMEs across Europe. We examine how the "European Innovation Champions" successfully absorbed and reacted to the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Five different paradoxical behaviors (i.e., planning, liquidity,...

Abstract COVID-19 challenges the value systems of family firms and urges them to adapt their behaviors, affecting their identities. This study aims to explore how and why family businesses strategically respond to challenges to their identity during COVID-19 . Based on a qualitative case study...

Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German...