Dealing with Paradoxical Tensions in Family Firms - Insights From a Game-Based Approach

Entrepreneurs in general often have to deal with seemingly conflicting goals in a rapidly changing and complex world. Family entrepreneurs are particularly prone to paradoxical tensions due to the interconnectedness of the family and the firm. Despite their relevance in entrepreneurial practice, current research lacks methods to examine both microfoundations of and individual behavior in the management of paradoxes. In this paper, we introduce the application of serious games as a method capable of simulating context-rich paradoxes in an immersive environment to analyze entrepreneurial decision-making. Therefore, we developed a text-based game that simulates decision-making behavior in family firms regarding the innovation-tradition-paradox. We quantitatively analyze the behavior of 199 players and explore the relationship between player behavior and variables reflecting microfoundations of entrepreneurial decision-making which are highly relevant in the family firm context like for example socioemotional wealth reference points. Our results indicate a positive relationship between a paradoxical mindset and socioemotional wealth and the choice for an ambidextrous firm strategy. With this study, we demonstrate the potential of serious games as a method for advancing (family) entrepreneurship research and behavioral management theories.