In this article, the authors investigate how family businesses manage inherent conflicts between family goals (maintaining control and harmony) and business goals (growth and professionalization) through strategic storytelling about their company history. The study reveals that during critical events such as acquisitions and IPOs, when leaders, employees, and family members jointly construct narratives—such as positioning professionalization as innovation or framing external managers as an “extended family”—they successfully reduce resistance to necessary changes while preserving the family’s emotional bond to the business, ultimately enabling sustainable growth and successful acquisition integration across generations.
The strategic realignment of paradoxical family and business goals in family business: A rhetorical history perspective
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