Family vision and cognition : An illustration through forest owners' harvesting decisions

International audienceBased on cognition as a key determinant in strategic decisions, this study employs a case study approach to explore how family vision – one of the main characteristics of family firms – affects the cognitive frames of reference of family decision-makers, especially business owners. This research suggests that family business owners pursue different family visions, which leads to different interpretations of environmental information during strategic decision-making by highlighting certain elements. I infer several propositions outlining that the degree of a family vision's emphasis on non-economic goals may modify the framing of decisions and endanger long-term orientation, therefore affecting strategic outcomes.<br/

The behavior of forest landowner : contribution to knowledge of consequences of intergenerational prospect on family business owner’s decisions.

Erigé en modèle du dirigeant d’entreprise familiale à la tête d’un outil de production de bois, sa forêt, le forestier est un dirigeant d’entreprise singulier dont l’activité se caractérise par une unique décision de gestion, couper ou ne pas couper; et par un horizon temporel extrêmement long sur plusieurs générations.Partant du constat que le comportement des forestiers n’est pas rationnel au regard de la fonction de production de la forêt, les sources de déviations comportementales sont explorées et notamment l’influence de la vision familiale, du fait de l’impact de chacune de leurs décisions sur leurs descendants. Dans cet objectif, en recourant à des travaux issus de la psychologie, un cadre théorique, offrant un modèle intégré de l’ensemble des biais pouvant affecter le dirigeant, est élaboré. Adoptant une méthode comparative entre différents cas de forestiers, la vision familiale est positionnée à la source d’un biais conatif les affectant et engendrant une inertie comportementale qui s’avère variable en fonction des spécificités de la famille dont ils sont issus. Les différents comportements des forestiers offrent une nouvelle perspective en termes de gouvernance comportementale en proposant à la fois un outil d’analyse des comportements et un mécanisme visant par différentiel à identifier les sources de biais comportementaux ; et permettent d’inférer des moyens de les corriger.The forest landowner can be set up as a model of a business manager who leads a wood manufacture, his woodland. He can be considered as a particular business manager whose activity is characterized by an unique decision, to cut or not to cut the trees ; and by a long planning horizon on several generations.Through the observation that the forest landowners' behaviors are not totally rational in comparison with the function of the woodland production, the research explores the origins of biases that affect behaviors, and specifically the family vision on business, due to the impact of each decision on the future of the coming generations. In this objective, based on psychological researches, a theoretical background is implemented, which proposes a model of the various biases that can affect managers.By comparing the different cases of forest landowners, the family vision is found as the origin of a conative bias that triggers a behavioral inertia. This inertia appears to be variable according to the specificities of the managers' families. The various forest landowners' behaviors allow to grasp new elements concerning behavioral governance through the proposition of both a behavior analyzing tool and a mechanism which aims to identify the origins of biases through a differential method , and allow to infer the mean to correct them

The behavior of forest landowner : contribution to knowledge of consequences of intergenerational prospect on family business owner’s decisions.

Erigé en modèle du dirigeant d’entreprise familiale à la tête d’un outil de production de bois, sa forêt, le forestier est un dirigeant d’entreprise singulier dont l’activité se caractérise par une unique décision de gestion, couper ou ne pas couper; et par un horizon temporel extrêmement long sur plusieurs générations.Partant du constat que le comportement des forestiers n’est pas rationnel au regard de la fonction de production de la forêt, les sources de déviations comportementales sont explorées et notamment l’influence de la vision familiale, du fait de l’impact de chacune de leurs décisions sur leurs descendants. Dans cet objectif, en recourant à des travaux issus de la psychologie, un cadre théorique, offrant un modèle intégré de l’ensemble des biais pouvant affecter le dirigeant, est élaboré. Adoptant une méthode comparative entre différents cas de forestiers, la vision familiale est positionnée à la source d’un biais conatif les affectant et engendrant une inertie comportementale qui s’avère variable en fonction des spécificités de la famille dont ils sont issus. Les différents comportements des forestiers offrent une nouvelle perspective en termes de gouvernance comportementale en proposant à la fois un outil d’analyse des comportements et un mécanisme visant par différentiel à identifier les sources de biais comportementaux ; et permettent d’inférer des moyens de les corriger.The forest landowner can be set up as a model of a business manager who leads a wood manufacture, his woodland. He can be considered as a particular business manager whose activity is characterized by an unique decision, to cut or not to cut the trees ; and by a long planning horizon on several generations.Through the observation that the forest landowners' behaviors are not totally rational in comparison with the function of the woodland production, the research explores the origins of biases that affect behaviors, and specifically the family vision on business, due to the impact of each decision on the future of the coming generations. In this objective, based on psychological researches, a theoretical background is implemented, which proposes a model of the various biases that can affect managers.By comparing the different cases of forest landowners, the family vision is found as the origin of a conative bias that triggers a behavioral inertia. This inertia appears to be variable according to the specificities of the managers' families. The various forest landowners' behaviors allow to grasp new elements concerning behavioral governance through the proposition of both a behavior analyzing tool and a mechanism which aims to identify the origins of biases through a differential method , and allow to infer the mean to correct them

Family vision and cognition : An illustration through forest owners' harvesting decisions

International audienceBased on cognition as a key determinant in strategic decisions, this study employs a case study approach to explore how family vision – one of the main characteristics of family firms – affects the cognitive frames of reference of family decision-makers, especially business owners. This research suggests that family business owners pursue different family visions, which leads to different interpretations of environmental information during strategic decision-making by highlighting certain elements. I infer several propositions outlining that the degree of a family vision's emphasis on non-economic goals may modify the framing of decisions and endanger long-term orientation, therefore affecting strategic outcomes.<br/