Cross-level effects in the family business domain: How family and business interplay with each other

The intricate interplay between the family system and the business system lies at the heart of family business research. Understanding how these two domains influence each other is essential for comprehending the unique dynamics of family businesses. At the hands of two studies, I would like to discuss cross-level effects within the family business domain, spotlighting how they influence decision-making and resilience mechanisms. The two studies integrate insights from prospect theory and social cognitive theory and help to explain a) how reference points between managers of family and nonfamily firms diverge and b) how a firm's entrepreneurial orientation impacts the individual resilience of small business owners. They build on an experimental design and survey data derived from both family and nonfamily firms respectively.

Nicole Gottschalck is Assistant Professor for Personnel Economics and Management at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and Associate Assistant Professor for Business at the Bucerius Law School. Her research focuses on organizational behaviour in the context of family businesses and SMEs, growth pains of small firms, and the phenomenon of reluctant leadership. She conducted her doctoral studies on contingency perspectives of employee retention at the WHU with research visits in the USA at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the Pace University in New York. Nicole is particularly interested in integrating the perspectives of different disciplines such as social science, communication studies, and law to contribute to discourses on small business management, entrepreneurship, and leadership with both qualitative and quantitative research methods.