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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the family protocol as a governance policy tool that can help ameliorate intra-family conflict and enhance the probabilities of survivability of the family business.

Using equity theory and organizational justice as theoretical frameworks, the authors explain how and why the development of a protocol can help the family firm and their survivability. The authors combine academic and practitioner knowledge to present a process model for creating family protocols.

Based on four important considerations (i.e. process view, deep knowledge about the family business, dynamic environment, and the need for change and adaptation) the authors develop a process model for the development of family tailored protocols.

This paper integrates the work of practitioners and academics to help understand what is a family protocol, why and how the protocol affects the family and business relationships and presents a procedural model for the development of a family protocol that can help govern the relationship between the family and the business.

Although researchers have highlighted the importance of relational and family factors for the sustainability of a family firm, there is not much empirical research exploring how emotions and the management of emotions play a role in the interpersonal dynamics of family business owners. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the way family members manage their emotions affects the interpersonal dynamics in the family, business, and ownership subsystems of a family firm.

The paper presents an in-depth case study from a family firm in Colombia-South America.

The results indicate that the capability that family members have to manage their emotions influences the interpersonal dynamics that take place in the family firm at the individual and group level. In this case, the paper found that although emotional intelligence (EI) affected interpersonal relationships in a firm, this effect was based on the individual's willingness to use their EI capabilities, previous history between people, and the goals individuals have within each subsystem in a family firm. The paper also found that interpersonal dynamics, in turn, influence how family members work together.

Because this study uses an in-depth case study, the intention of the paper is to provide an initial picture of how EI can play a role in the interpersonal interactions between family business owners. The authors hope that this study can be used as a building block to enhance the understanding of the role of EI in family firms.

EI represents an individual's capability to perceive, understand, manage, and regulate self and other's emotions. For family firms, this means that family business owners can use this capability to determine how to enact their roles in the family firm and how to interact with other to ensure harmony in their relationships.

This paper builds on previous work on emotions in family firms to explore the role of EI in family firms, and provides an empirical exploration of the role of management of emotions in family firms.