Introducing ownership innovation as an approach to study family firms ownership practices

Abstract

This chapter focuses on ownership innovation, especially on family owners’ role in conducting innovative activities in their pursuit of control and development of the family business. Using a qualitative case study, we show how family firm owners create, develop, and adopt new organizational structures, practices, and tools to manage their family business ownership. Our analysis shows that the ownership innovation process is path dependent and seems to be associated with the professionalization of ownership management in the family business. We propose that as a novel innovation concept, ownership innovation is needed to better understand ownership in family business research. More empirical research is encouraged to uncover family business owners’ innovations regarding the ownership arrangement in their family businesses.