Family Capital for Business Resilience during the COVID-19 Crisis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/ejfb.15.2.2025.20433Keywords:
Business resilience, Family firms, Family capital, Social capital, Emerging economyAbstract
Family firms are often regarded as more resilient than non-family firms, yet little is known about how this resilience develops from family-specific resources, particularly in emerging economies. This study explores how family capital—human, social, and financial—helped Indonesian family firms navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. Drawing on a multiple case study of four family-owned SMEs, we adopted an abductive approach, combining in-depth interviews with secondary data to build theory from context. The findings show that human capital, such as intergenerational learning and role flexibility, enabled firms to adapt quickly, while social capital, built on trust and long-term relationships, supported continuity and renewal. Financial capital acted as a buffer but was less central than expected. Overall, resilience emerged not from individual resources but from the interaction of these capitals. The study contributes to theory by reframing resilience as a relational capability embedded in family and cultural context, rather than as a static firm attribute. For practice and policy, the study highlights the importance of strengthening family members’ commitment, intergenerational skills, and relational networks, while deploying financial capital strategically to ensure continuity.
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Carrasco-Hernández, A. J., & Jiménez-Jiménez, D. (2016). Knowledge management, flexibility and firm performance: The effects of family involvement. European Journal of Family Business, 6(2), 108–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejfb.2017.06.001
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Danes, S. M., & Brewton, K. E. (2012). Follow the Capital: Benefits of Tracking Family Capital across Family and Business Systems. In Follow the Capital: Benefits of Tracking Family Capital across Family and Business Systems (Issue June). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0911-3
Danes, S. M., Lee, J., Stafford, K., & Heck, R. K. Z. (2008). The effects of ethnicity, families and culture on entrepreneurial perience: An extension of sustainable family business theory. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 13(3), 229–268. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1084946708001010
Danes, S. M., Stafford, K., Haynes, G., & Amarapurkar, S. S. (2009). Family capital of family firms: Bridging human, social, and financial capital. Family Business Review, 22(3), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486509333424
Diaz-Moriana, V., Hernández-Linares, R., & Sanchez-Famoso, V. (2022). Family and Technology: Resilience Factors in SMEs in a Pandemic. European Journal of Family Business, 12(2), 96–99. https://doi.org/10.24310/ejfbejfb.v12i2.15918
Duchek, S. (2020). Organizational resilience: a capability-based conceptualization. Business Research, 13(1), 215–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40685-019-0085-7
Dyer, G. (2022). Where Have All the Families Gone — Is There a Future for Family Businesses? European Journal of Family Business, 12(2), 220–225. https://doi.org/10.24310/ejfbejfb.v12i2.15295
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1991). Better Stories and Better Constructs : The Case for Rigor and Comparative Logic. Academy of Management Journal, 16(3), 620–627. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1991.4279496
Gehman, J., Glaser, V. L., Eisenhardt, K. M., Gioia, D., Langley, A., & Corley, K. G. (2018). Finding Theory–Method Fit: A Comparison of Three Qualitative Approaches to Theory Building. Journal of Management Inquiry, 27(3), 284–300. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617706029
Hadjielias, E., Christofi, M., & Tarba, S. (2022). Contextualizing small business resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from small business owner-managers. Small Business Economics, 59(4), 1351–1380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-021-00588-0
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Lorenzo-Gomez, J. D. (2020). Orientation Barriers to Internal change Market in family businesses in family firms. European Journal Of Family Business, 54–63. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24310/ejfbejfb.v10i1.7018
Mzid, I., Khachlouf, N., & Soparnot, R. (2019). How does family capital influence the resilience of family firms? Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 17(2), 249–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-018-0226-7
Pearson, A. W., Carr, J. C., & Shaw, J. C. (2008). Toward a theory of familiness: A social capital perspective. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 32(6 SPEC. ISS.), 949–969. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00265.x
Prayogo, G. A., Kodrat, D. S., & Wiryakusuma, I. G. B. Y. (2020). Faktor-Faktor yang Membentuk Bisnis Keluarga Bertumbuh Secara Berkelanjutan. PERFORMA, 4(2 SE-Articles), 240–247. https://doi.org/10.37715/jp.v4i2.1523
Rahim, R., Husni, T., Desyetti, D, Desyetti, D, & Ryswaldi, R. (2024). Role of successor, government policy, and collaboration synergy on sustainability family business: Moderation of gender and firm age. Business Perspectives and Research, 1(22). https://doi.org/10.1177/22785337241239439
Salvato, C., & Melin, L. (2008). Creating value across generations in family-controlled businesses: The role of family social capital. Family Business Review, 21(3), 259–276. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2008.00127.x
Sandoval-Díaz, J., Navarrete-Valladares, C., Suazo-Muñoz, C., & Martínez-Labrín, S. (2023). Collective memories and previous experiences of older people in the face of disaster risk processes: lessons learned, implication, and social support. Frontiers in Climate, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2023.1272219
Sharma, P. (2008). Familiness : Capital Stocks and Flows. Ntrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2007, 971–977. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00266.x
Steiner Saetre, A., & Van de Ven, A. (2021). Generating theory by abduction. Academy of Management Review, 46(4), 684–701. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0233
Yin, R. (2003). Case study research design and methods. In Thousand Oaks (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications Inc.
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