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The question of crisis resistance and resilience of long-lived family businesses became particularly volatile with the beginning of the Corona crisis. In this context the project “Narratives of Survival” was launched focusing on the prevailing narratives to find out how crisis situations have been dealt with and narrated by long-lived German family firms.

Based on narrative interviews, the empirical study of transgenerational entrepreneurship was first approached in an open-ended manner. The interview guideline addresses different types of crises and asks about resources, insights, regulations and explanations for the longevity of the family businesses.

In the qualitative content analysis, 12 guiding narratives were pointed out, providing information about the self-narratives of these entrepreneurial families which revolve around the three themes of self-image, familiarity and strategy.

This study provides information about the secrets of longevity of four very old family firms. The narratives revealed that strengthening the identity of the entrepreneurial family and employees of the family business as well as generating a shared reality, supports constructive handling of challenges and crises. This study contributes to theory by answering calls for narrative analysis in family firms and to practice by showing what younger companies can learn from long-lived family businesses.

This conceptual article aims to contribute to the design of a theory of family-influenced firms by a framework for the management of business-family dilemmas.

It combines systemic principles with the tetralemma, a tool from ancient Indian logic that families and businesses can use to manage and reframe dilemmas without dissolving the dilemmatic tensions or blurring their boundaries.

In applying the tetralemma, the article offers a range of suggestions, such as observing business and family as two discrete, yet codependent, social systems and envisioning conceptual and methodological imports from codependency research and therapy into family business research and practice.

The article proposes a framework for the selective and flexible navigation of family-business tensions without dissolving them or blurring their boundaries.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Family businesses are able to survive external pressures and crises when they adopt key narratives of survival.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.