To investigate the complex dynamics when family members with differing perceptions and interpretations of reality jointly lead their family business, this research adopts an epistemic-operative interview technique using Morgan’s images of organization. We explore how family leaders’ root metaphors, which are symbolic frames that help understand individuals’ attitudes and behaviors, are linked to family businesses’ behavior and performance. Analyzing six Italian family hotels, we derive four structures of family symbolic meanings and explain how and why relationships and innovation are mechanisms through which firm performance is related and connected to the offshoots of the meanings of family leaders’ root metaphors.

中文翻译：

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家族企业领袖的隐喻与企业绩效：探索象征意义的“根”与“芽”

为了调查对现实有不同看法和解释的家庭成员共同领导家族企业时的复杂动态，本研究采用了使用摩根组织形象的认知-操作访谈技术。我们探讨了家族领导者的根本隐喻（帮助理解个人态度和行为的象征性框架）如何与家族企业的行为和绩效相关联。通过分析六家意大利家庭酒店，我们推导出四种家庭象征意义的结构，并解释了关系和创新如何以及为什么是公司绩效与家族领导者根本隐喻含义的分支相关联的机制。