Territoriality in Family Business Groups: The Impact of Ownership in Sharing Territories

Abstract

This study aims to improve our understanding of how territoriality emerges and how business territories are shared during and after critical events in family business groups. The empirical study is based on qualitative cases. In this study, we show that based on legal, psychological and social attachments, family business owners have strong incentives to modify the ownership and control structures of family business groups and to mark and defend their possessions. The findings contribute to existing research on territoriality and family businesses by presenting new perspectives on business owners’ territorial behaviour.