When a Family Business “Meets” an Innovative Startup: A Visual Analysis of Parent-Venture Identity Claims

The focal interest of this research is to explore the role of the visuals in relation to organizational identity. In particular, the aim is to investigate whether the identity claims start to differ, when an organization is facing a process of corporate venturing. In addition, this research points at the potential tension between the context in which the newly born company is expected to establish its identity versus its originating context, along with all the norms and values characterizing it and are coming with. Empirically, the paper is focused on the identity claims of the innovative startups created by family business, as a type of relation where the contrast between both contexts perfectly illustrates the tension that we bring to light. In the literature, there is a long list of papers dealing with organizational identity, corporate venturing in family business or innovative startups, however rare are those that are bringing upfront the importance of the visuals as part of the organizational identity that companies wish to define for their internal purpose and also communicate to their external audiences. By using a qualitative and interpretative research design based on analysis of visuals used on the official websites, this analysis aims at understanding how do innovative startups depict themselves and whether the venturing process motivates similarities or differences in their identity claims with respect to their parent companies. . The preliminary findings of this research indicate that visuals act as bridges rather than as stimulants for divergences of the respective identities. This research will contribute to the current academic debate, but will also be useful for the entrepreneurs themselves, by pointing out possible patterns, tendencies and importance of the phenomenon.