When the display of emotion is not enough: An emotion boundary management perspective on the quality of strategic decisions

In this study, we take an interest in how family business members create their emotion rules and emotion boundaries in and between the two spheres of business and family and how they manage these. We show that this management of emotion boundaries affects the quality of strategic decisions. We conclude that family members create emotion rules and emotion boundaries based on the meanings and understandings of time, space, and/or the relationships that are embedded within the family business emotion-framing rules. Depending on their concern for their own interests and goals, family goals and/or family business goals, they engage in emotional displays that lead to emotional balance, dissonance, or stamina. We reveal how emotional displays affect the decision outcome quality. We therefore contribute to the literature on the role of emotion boundary management in strategic management by evaluating a specific context where the spheres of family and business overlap with more complexity than in a typical case.