Family Business Advising, Strategic Work and Unfolding Spaces

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which the process of advising, as well as the family firm-professional advisor relationship, can unfold over time and perform strategic work. To achieve this aim, we rely upon the experience of a family firm and its evolving relationship with an external advisor in the management accounting field. Over a period of 15 years, strategy work was performed through (and shaped by) unfolding ‘strategy spaces’ within which the advisor made use of multiple material, spatial and discursive resources. By interpreting the empirical evidence with theoretical insights from the strategy-as-practice literature, as well as from organization studies on space, we combine and add to prior studies on advising and strategizing in family business by showing how the process of advising can help bring strategy into being.