Maintaining the Balance between Innovation and Tradition in Family Business

Abstract

Family firms are shaped by numerous values which stem from the history, legacy, and unique characteristics or beliefs. They are often spoken highly of, highlighting the company’s past and legacy. In the constantly evolving environment they operate in, however, the only constant is change. Businesses are expected to innovate and redesign both their offering and proces-ses to remain competitive and – most importantly – profitable. Those contradictory forces require family businesses to develop unique ways of balancing change and innovation. In the paper, the author argues that family firms are required to effectively manage traditions and innovation. Drawing on that assumption, the author delves deeper to investigate the ac-tual strategies to achieve the balance by formulating the following research question: How do family businesses introduce innovation while keeping the balance between tradition and innovativeness? Using the case study method, the author attempts to discover these patterns within a Polish family firm operating in the jewellery industry. The data have been collected as a result of a series of semi-structured interviews. First, the author covers the core values of the company to offer a better understanding thereof and then identifies them and their significance within the methods of generating and implementing innovations. Contributing to the still developing discussion on the topic, the following analysis exhibits a strong at-tachment to the traditions in the innovation processes and reveals specific factors that affect the practices followed by the firm. The author concludes that one of the possible strategies involves acting in accordance to the core values of the company, which is the case for the family firm under consideration.