Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between the nature of shocks (family vs. business related), the relative importance of socioemotional wealth importance (SEWi) dimensions (family prominence, enrichment and continuity), and the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of family firms over time. An exploratory multiple case research based on critical realism was conducted to theorize on how shocks define socially constructed time, which in turn explains the social dynamic behind family firms' priorities and routines exposing EO. By integrating socioemotional wealth (SEW) framework to time and routine framework from organizations studies, it is proposed that shocks determine the formation and speed of evolution of estuaries of time in family firms. This also explains which are the priorities driving decisions of change or stability within these firms as well as the social and emotional dynamic between the family and the businesses explaining changes in EO.