Generational Change as a Timeless Innovation Engine in Family Businesses: A Morphological Perspective on Change Stories

This article analyses stories with a particular focus on psychological aspects of family businesses and how they deal with transformation. In addition to Lewin’s Gestalt psychological model of change, Bruner’s concept of narrative theory is presented to then illustrate the specific function of narratives in (long-lived) family businesses. Based on this, generational change can be understood as an independent change narrative with which a family business can regularly organise ways of dealing with change processes. In this article, I use extracts from my current research project, which is part of my Ph.D. dissertation at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne under Prof. Dr. Herbert Fitzek. Based on initial morphological analyses, I present two narrative logics of stories about generational change. They illustrate how family businesses narratively frame generational change and thereby meet the quest for innovation.