Sustaining competitive advantage in a world of giants: The case of family firms in the pharmaceutical industry

While many mergers and acquisitions have affected the map of industries in general, family firms in the pharmaceutical industry have been able to cope with giants and crisis. This paper intends to comprehend how family firms are able to survive and maintain their competitive advantage over time in a highly dynamic and competitive environment where multinationals have coped high market shares and developed economies of scale and scope. Our exploratory qualitative studies two companies, one in France, one in Spain. Both companies are in the same industry, both have experienced transgenerational succession, both are similar in size. The two companies, though, adopted a different growth strategy. Our findings suggest that family businesses have been able to sustain their competitive advantage and survive over time, positioning themselves even stronger in crisis times because of their Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996, 2001) and their Familiness (Habbershon & Williams, 1999).