The Quagmire of Legacy in Family Firms: Definition and Implications of Family and Family Firm Legacy Orientations

Family firm scholars often reference the legacy concerns or intentions of families when explaining strategic decision making in family firms. Yet, the concept of family legacy is not clearly defined or delineated in the literature. As such, we define and explore the family legacy construct from the integrated perspectives of psychosocial development and sense-making literatures. We identify three forms of family legacy: biological, material, and social. Further, we present the family and family firm legacy orientations as unique constructs, offering a theoretical model that proposes the linkages from these distinct orientations to strategic decision making and behavioral outcomes in family firms.