A micro-level study of agricultural family-managed firms: the role of age in the management of family social capital

A unique resource that differentiates family firms from non-family firms, family social capital has been well researched in the family firm literature as well as more broadly in the management literature. However, what is less known is the influence of micro-level mechanisms regarding how family members perceive themselves within the family. Based on the assumption that family social capital accumulates over a lifetime and is non-transferrable, family firms may have a problem, especially in sectors highly dependent upon social capital, such as the agribusiness sector. To further explore this potential issue, we conducted a qualitative, inductive, grounded theory study on English family-managed agribusinesses. Surprisingly, rather than transferring family social capital, the junior generation developed its own family social capital, helped by the presence of renewal mechanisms. We found that such renewal mechanisms were heavily influenced by the senior generation, which explains how family social capital is managed. This contributes to four adjacent strands of the literature: social capital, family social capital, gerontology and agribusinesses. This research fills a theoretical gap that is increasingly relevant due to the ageing population characterizing societies across the Western world. Indeed, practitioners can use these renewal mechanisms and imitate renewal mechanisms’ behaviours for multigenerational family firms.