1. Ksenia Keplinger, 2. Birgit Feldbauer-Durstmueller
Being a significant source of growth, prosperity and welfare, family businesses are of prime importance for the economies of countries all over the world. It is widely acknowledged that family-owned firms differ from non-family businesses in many aspects, such as financing, organization structure, survivability and human resources (Habbershon and Williams, 1999; Chrisman et al., 2006). It is interesting to note, that the majority of perceptions and associations with family firms is formed by the family business scholars and owners and illustrates therefore an “insider-perspective” (Krappe et al., 2011). Despite the increased attention to theoretical and empirical research in family businesses in the last years, the relevance of external images of family firms has been neglected by scholars.
Maintaining the ways in which the wider population perceives family firms is significant not only for better understanding the roles of family businesses in society and preserving respec-tability, but also for attracting the best talents, achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and ensuring the survival of family firms (Carnegie and Napier, 2010). One of the ways to study external images of family businesses is to examine their portrayals in popular culture. Serving both as a mirror of widely held public beliefs and as a lens for shaping social perceptions (Dyer, 1993), fiction, films and press have an essential influence on actual practices and career choices of people (Czarniawska and Rhodes, 2006).
In this paper we analyze the public’s perceptions of family businesses through times in the cultural and historical context of Russia, using popular culture as a field material. The main reasons for choosing Russian family businesses as objects for the present study are the current low level of knowledge about the development of family firms in Russia and their remarkable historical development. On the one hand, modern family businesses in Russia lack tradition and experience because setting up a private firm was forbidden during the Soviet era. On the other hand, there are a lot of examples of Russian families (Demidovy, Morosovy, etc.), who carried on successful businesses for many generations before the October Revolution 1917. This contrast asks for evaluation of how the representations of family businesses in popular culture and consequently the public’s perceptions of family firms have evolved over the years. This paper is the first step to close the existing research gap addressing the following research ques-tions:
• What is the image of modern family businesses in Russian popular culture?
• How did the political, economical and social changes influence the public’s perceptions of family firms over the years?
• Are there any misconceptions about family firms promoted through the mass media?
To answer these research questions, we conduct a qualitative study of Russian fiction, movies and newspapers before the October Revolution, during the Soviet era and after the fall of the Soviet Union. The theoretical framework of the study is based on sociological and mythical understanding of images. Our study includes a review and content analysis of 20 novels, 15 films and over 60 articles published in eight major Russian business newspapers and magazines from 1991 till 2010.
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Datum:
13.06.2011.
Br. otvaranja:
784
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