Purpose

This paper strives to understand the role of resource orchestration (RO) in the rapid growth of high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a comparative case study, RO is compared between a high-tech family firm and a high-tech non-family firm. To capture the complexity of RO, this study applies a longitudinal approach using a large volume of archival and interview data gathered over ten years.

Findings

The configuration of family-firm paradoxical growth-oriented RO emphasizes RO based on collectivism and responsibility, although relying on large-scale conforming normative control. In contrast, the configuration of non-family-firm growth-oriented RO emphasizes administrative-based delegation and management-supported value creation.

Originality/value

By suggesting ownership-based RO configurations, this study provides insights into how ownership types, i.e. family firms and non-family firms, affect RO in firms operating in complex and dynamic environments. These configurations explain how and why RO is arranged in a growth context.

This study presents a multidimensional taxonomy of “ecopreneurship” for small manufacturing firms. Based on a cluster analysis of 312 Swedish firms, four distinct clusters are identified: pioneers, green dumpers, overlookers, and recyclers. These clusters are compared regarding their level of entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Based on the results, and because of the resource constraints associated with small firms, managers of such companies are advised to examine the economic consequences of specific environmental business practices and to adopt a less aggregated approach to ecopreneurship. This study illustrates the usefulness of a multidimensional scale when researching environmental behaviors and is a response to the lack of an empirically based classification of ecopreneurship configurations.

This paper compares and distinguishes different devices, which family owners use to manage and develop their wealth over time. The paper addresses similarities and differences and states research questions for future development.

The resource orchestration concept has attracted considerable interest in contemporary innovation research. However, resource orchestration is a manager-centric framework and not all of its components necessarily reflect the value-creation processes of organizations focusing on team-based innovation. Drawing on a single-case study of an innovative Swedish software company, we illustrate the roles of autonomous teams, customers, and top managers in orchestrating resources for team-based innovation. Moreover, we introducethe concept of resource flocculation to describe how key actors co-orchestrate various resource orchestration processes. The study contributes to research on resource orchestration by adapting the model to the conditions characterizing team-based innovation, and to research on team-based innovation by addressing how innovative teams are related to overall resource orchestration processes and, ultimately, organizational innovation outcomes.

This paper explores how family influences the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) process in immigrant family business. To fulfill the purpose, we employ inductive multiple case studies using fifty-six in-depth interviews. We rely on seven cases of immigrant entrepreneurs of Chinese, Icelandic, Turkish, Cameroonian, Mexican and Libanese who established firms in Sweden. Our results suggest that EO development trajectories vary in regard to first and second generation immigrant entrepreneurs, low and high-tech sectors and host and home contries. Thus, family dynamics facilitates the development of entrepreneurial orientation over time through transfering across generations and contexts. Our study indicates that, through family dynamics, EO is developed as a transferring process of the founders' proactiveness, risk-taking and innovativeness between the family in the home and host country.

The core question addressed in the natural resource‐based view (NRBV) of the firm is how to develop and exploit resources beneficial for both the natural environment and firm performance. Due to the resource constraints and increased competition facing small manufacturing firms, achieving this is a challenge for such companies. Building on the NRBV and resource orchestration literatures, we examine the relationship between green purchasing capabilities (GPCs), CEO's environmental orientation(EO), and firm growth. Results from 304 Swedish small manufacturing firms indicate a significant relationship between GPC and growth, and this relationship is positively moderated by the EO of the CEO.

This study investigate social value creation in family firms in a region in Sweden. The purpose of this study is tocompare two family firms that are embedded in a strong regional entrepreneurial culture and understand howthe owners contribute to value creation. A case study approach is used to understand the value creation. Thestudy finds different forums and means of interaction between the firms and the community, such as the localuniversity and the local sports club. The owners become engaged citizens which allows extending earlier discussionson the subject. Thereby, the student develops the concept of social value creation at the interconnectionof family firms and communities. The study draws on prior discourses from the entrepreneurship literature.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the change of the founder’s psychological ownershipwhen s/he sells the business and its implications for the organization’s strategy.Design/methodology/approach – The study contributes with a longitudinal study of psychologicalownership, accounting for its development over time in a Swedish e-commerce company. By applying a casestudy methodology, conclusions are drawn from a vast amount of archival data and interviews. The empiricalmaterial covers the transition from a founder-run, family-owned to a first foreign-owned, and currentlyprivate-equity owned company.Findings – Theoretically, it extends understandings of psychological ownership and its strategicimplications by including former legal owners; that is, how psychological ownership changes after legalownership ceases. Thereby, it develops the individual dimension (founder and former owner) of psychologicalownership as well as its collective dimension (employees toward founder). The paper contributes to thepsychological ownership founder and exit-literatures by highlighting continuity after the formal sale of legalownership and its consequences for the organization.Practical implications – It finds that new legal owners can use this heritage to signal continuity andlaunch strategic changes by transforming it into artifacts.Originality/value – This study extends the understanding of development of psychological ownership offounders from foundation to exit and its consequences for the organization’s strategy. This extension shedsnew light on founders as artifacts of organizations and thereby their role for the organizational heritage.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of resource orchestration in rapidly growing owner-ledcompanies in dynamic environments. Based on a comparative case study of owner-led companies, the resource orchestration in a owner-led familyfirm is compared with an owner-led one. A large amount of archival data and interviews are used. By uncoveringthe resource management process, the findings indicate a difference in focus between the owner-led familyfirm and the owner-led firm. The resource orchestration in the family firm focuses to a greater extent on therecruitment of new staff, the incorporation and the control of “right” values and norms. On the other hand, theowner-led business puts a higher focus on performance metrics and the documented coordination of teams andcustomers. By revealing the management role in a dynamic industry, the present study criticizes and extendsgeneral findings of the resource orchestration literature.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how a former family firm strategically makes use of the founder's legacy to preserve its organizational identity. Following a single case study approach, it draws on rich empirical material from semi-structured interviews and extensive archival data. We show how central organizational activities are affected by a founder's heritage long after the formal exit has taken place, illustrating the central, enduring, and distinctive elements of organizational identity a founder has. Regardless of ownership forms, the family company founder's legacy is used to legitimize new owners and maintain the organization's identity. However, centripetal moves complicate the preservation of the organizational identity, whereas a high focus on value leveraging in another ownership form opens up for centrifugal approaches which strengthen the entrepreneurial dimension of organizational identity.