Do we really want to cut out the deadwood?: Family-centered noneconomic goals, restructuring aversion, and escalation of commitment

We contribute to the theoretical depiction of family firms\u2019 reactions during a downturn by adopting the ability and willingness approach. Specifically, we suggest that the combination of the ability and the willingness to pursue family-centered noneconomic (FCNE) goals makes family firms less likely to engage in restructuring activities and more likely to engage in an escalation of commitment. Moreover, we further investigate the family firms\u2019 heterogeneity and introduce the idea that the willingness of family firms to pursue FCNE goals may be influenced by the geographical context and the generational stage of the enterprising family

The dynamics of inter-organizational hybrid partnerships in technology transfer

Drawing on the literature on inter-organizational and hybrid partnerships, we put forth a process-based perspective on the evolution of regional innovation systems (RIS), with particular attention to the changing role of TTOs through-out the RIS lifecycle. We theorize on how perceptions of environmental turbu-lence (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, in short VUCA) may influence partners\u2019 decisions to adopt a given organization model for the bro-ker/TTO that manages the partnership. We show that perceptions of environ-mental turbulence may lead to a set of possible decision pathologies at the partnership level that interfere with the organizational structure of the TTO. We suggest that perceptions of turbulence and decision pathologies play an important part in explaining RIS may deviate from the intended direction or produce outcomes that are unexpecte