Does CEOs’ prior experience in global crises matter for family firms in their next crisis? Emotional and rational advantages across cultural contexts

Purpose This work analyzes the antecedents that explain family-owned firms’ resilience during an external global crisis. Our research proposal contends that a CEO’s successful experience in managing a previous external global crisis will increase a family firm’s performance when facing another global crisis. On the one hand, we argue that a rational advantage exists as CEOs’ past experience in external crises will increase their willingness to invest in identifying environmental challenges and aligning the business strategy with digital transformation. On the other hand, we claim that an emotional advantage exists because a CEO who has survived other global external crisis will be able to increase family identification with the security of having succeeded previously. These advantages of a CEO’s experience will vary depending on the national cultural context. In countries with high individualism, the impact of a family firm’s CEO will be higher than in collectivist ones. Design/methodology/approach We test our hypotheses using SEM analysis on a dataset of 1,548 firms, a survey collected globally by the STEP Global Family Business Survey in 2021. Findings CEOs’ experience in previous global crisis impacts family firms’ resilience in a new crisis. The experience provides a rational advantage through digital alignment of the family firm, enhancing resilience, but not an emotional advantage, boosting family firms’ identification and enhancing resilience. The direct effect of CEOs experience on resilience during a new crisis increases in highly individualistic cultures. Originality/value The quantitative and multi-country evidence of the role of family firms CEO experience in achieving resilience.