A battle of hearts and minds: social construction of founder identity in family business exit through a family drama

This paper analyzes the South Korean family drama ´What Happens to My Family´ to develop a relational perspective on founder identity and its role in family business exit. Drawing on a social constructivist lens, we explore how power dynamics, emotions, and the temporal context of the founder’s illness interact to shape the family’s construction of founder identity and influence decision-making during the founder’s exit. Our analysis reveals that the co-construction of founder identity enables the family to transcend financial and status-driven concerns. Under a sense of urgency and emotional intensity, the family engages deeply with affective dimensions, where love, fear, legacy, grief, and dormant passions emerge as transformative forces. We also identify a reversal narrative: the impending closure of the business becomes a crucible for collective identity negotiation and, ultimately, family reintegration. This narrative contrasts with traditional models, which often position the family as a source of integration for the business. Through engagement with the drama, we demonstrate how fiction can broaden entrepreneurship and family business research by challenging conventional assumptions and approaches.