Negotiating Continuity and Change: Identity Anchors as Communication Resources for Emergent Resilience in Family Farm Businesses

Identity anchors are powerful communication resources that reflect and impact organizational resilience. Family business members draw on identity discourses to explain who they are to themselves, others, and in relation to threats or hardships. This paper seeks to better understand what identity anchors contribute to family farm businesses' resilience as they navigate uncertainty and contemporary challenges. This study include analysis of interviews with 16 family maple farm businesses. We identified three identy anchors that were discursively shared, reinforced, and transformed: (I) High-Quality Producers, (II) Family Farm, and (III) Financially Focused Farm Enterprise. We argue that the sustainability of family farm businesses depends on how families construct and adapt organizational identity anchors. Resilience emerges when members can use them to negotiate the tension between change and continuity, as well as tensions created by pressures within the family, farm, and business systems. Results will be discussed in terms of their theoretical contributions and offer insights into managing resilience in family farm businesses.