Is blood too thicker than water? Social capital and dynamic capabilities in family firms. A qualitative longitudinal analysis

A new way to approach the “familiness” is through its relational dimension. Our dynamic model depicts non-linear relationships among family social capital (FSC), organizational social capital (OSC) and firm capabilities of managing resources. The results have been draw from a qualitative longitudinal analysis that lasted almost six years on twelve family firms of the textile district of Florence-Prato. FSC through its impulses to OSC in young family firms enhance the ability to acquire, integrate and recombine resources. However, in the later stage, such impulses at some extent deteriorate the development of a family firm’s ability of acquire and shed resources. Given the extensive research on “why”, “how” and “what” questions related to familiness, it is time to focus our attention on the “when” dimension.