How ties with family members influence professionals' creativity in family businesses: The role of hive effect and trust

• Main Author: RAMACHANDRA, Rameshwari
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Creativity; Innovation; Family Businesses; Trust; Networks; Asia; Myanmar; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/205; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=etd_coll
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Many Asian enterprises are family businesses. In recent years, there has been a growing body of research on creativity in Asian firms, but few studies on the creativity of the professionals working in Asian family businesses. Given the importance of creativity in family businesses for their continued success, I examined how a professional’s ties to family members in a family business influenced their creativity. I proposed that the number of family members in a professional’s network would positively predict the professional’s creativity, and that this effect would be mediated by the family members’ affective and cognitive trust in the professional. I further proposed that because of trust transference among family members, the source of trust came not only from family members directly connected to the professional but also from family members outside of the professional’s immediate network. I name this phenomenon the Family Member Hive Effect. I tested my hypotheses through (i) a network survey at a family business operating in the construction industry in Myanmar and (ii) semi-structured interviews with selected family members and professionals within the family business. Results from both the network survey and the interviews supported the hypotheses. Implications of the existence of the Hive Effect are discussed.