How does family capital influence the resilience of family firms?

How does being a family business contribute to resilience in a turbulent business environment? We draw on the Sustainable Family Business Theory (SFBT) to highlight the role of family capital (human, social, and financial capital) in the resilience of a sample of family firms. We collected data through semi-structured interviews with managers of four Tunisian family firms after the political revolution between 2011 and 2014, which triggered economic instability and business discontinuities. Organizational agility and resilience consequently became vital. We find that social capital of family firms, which may be composed of local and/or international contacts, contributes the most to firms' ability to absorb shocks, reallocate existing resources, and internalize practices that allow firms to cope with future disturbances. We also find that financial capital is largely determined by social capital and human capital of family firms. Our research contributes to the family business resilience literature by showing how developing resilience at an individual level (social capital) fosters organizational level (family business) resilience. The interactions between the three dimensions of social capital are particularly interesting for sustainable family business theorists. We show that financial capital mediates the impact of human and social capital in order to strengthen firms' resilience. Our research also has implications for the international entrepreneurship literature: we found that international contacts provide family businesses in crisis with strong social support together with access to strategic opportunities at the local level. Future research could focus on the direct and indirect impacts of several dimensions of family capital in order to test which configuration of family capital leads to the greatest resilience. Studies could also further explore the impact of the network of international contacts in the strategic renewal of resilient family firms by identifying international opportunities. ResumeComment l'entreprise familiale peut-elle se montrer resiliente dans un environnement d'affaires turbulent? Nous puisons nos arguments de la theorie de l'entreprise familiale durable pour mettre en evidence le role du capital familial (capital humain, social et financier) dans la resilience d'un echantillon d'entreprises familiales. Nous avons collecte des donnees a travers des entretiens semi-directifs avec les managers de quatre entreprises familiales tunisiennes apres la revolution politique entre 2011 et 2014. Cette revolution a declenche une instabilite economique severe mettant a l'epreuve la capacite des entreprises a etre resiliente. Nos resultats montrent que le capital social des entreprises familiales (compose aussi bien par des contacts locaux que des contacts internationaux) contribue fortement a la capacite des entreprises a absorber les chocs (capacite d'adaptation), reallouer les ressources existantes (capacite de renouvellement) et internaliser certaines pratiques permettant aux entreprises de faire face aux perturbations futures (capacite d'appropriation). Nous constatons egalement que le capital financier est. en grande partie determine par le capital social et le capital humain des entreprises familiales. Notre recherche contribue a la litterature sur la resilience de l'entreprise familiale en montrant comment le developpement de la resilience au niveau individuel (capital social des membres de la famille) contribue au developpement de la resilience a un niveau organisationnel. De meme, les interactions entre les trois dimensions du capital social sont particulierement interessantes pour les theoriciens de l'entreprise familiale durable. Nous montrons, en effet, que le capital financier mediatise les effets du capital humain et social afin de renforcer la resilience des entreprises. Notre recherche presente egalement des implications pour la litterature sur l'entreprenariat international en montrant que les contacts internationaux des entreprises familiales apportent un soutien social considerable a l'entreprise en situation de crise mais aussi offrent la possibilite d'acces a des opportunites strategiques a l'echelle locale. Les recherches futures pourraient se concentrer sur les impacts directs et indirects des differentes dimensions du capital familial afin de tester la meilleure configuration du capital familial conduisant a une plus grande resilience. Les recherches futures pourraient egalement explorer l'impact des contacts internationaux sur le renouvellement strategique des entreprises familiales resilientes et ce, a travers l'identification d'opportunites a l'echelle internationale.