Your Old Men Shall Dream Dreams, Your Young Men Shall See Visions: Toward a Theory of Family Firm Innovation with Help from the Brubeck Family

Despite significant advances, a conspicuous gap remains in family business research concerning the practice of innovation in family firms. After reviewing innovation and family business literature, we offer coarse‐ and fine‐grained conceptualizations of intergenerational innovation in the family enterprise. Given the fine‐grained distinctions inherent in our resulting definition of family firm innovation, we move on to an in‐depth study of one family involved in the innovative activity of jazz improvisation. After offering our analysis of the core dynamics apparent in this family's interactions, we conclude this paper with a research agenda for future work on family firm innovation. Rome falling to the barbarians,an old family firm going into bankruptcy, and a government agency quietly strangling in its own red tape have more in common that one might suppose. J.W.Gardner (1964, p.3) If you love your children, send them on their travels. Arabian proverb