Abstract
Environmental jolts are dramatic unexpected events that can seriously affect firm outcomes, yet little is known about how family firms may respond. Research indicates that they will seek to preserve their socioemotional wealth endowments when these are threatened; less clear is how or why they may differ in this process. Drawing on the same environmental jolt this study investigates their behavioral response. It finds they engage to different extents in behavior labeled as engagement intensification, which engenders increasing risk for their business. While there are differences in family firms’ socioemotional wealth these do not sufficiently explain differences in their behavioral response.