To understand why encounters between modern market institutions and other ways to allocate resources can yield so diverse outcomes, I examine family and business interplay in Rwanda, East Africa. Interviews reveal that the family institution's articulation with business depends on the value associated with family: order, love, or collective achievement. Accordingly, Rwandans either maintain family as central in resource exchange at society level or limit its role to the private sphere. This study highlights the intrinsic value ambiguity of a fundamental institution such as family. This ambiguity adds to extrinsic institutional complexity when family encounters business. The paper describes the process of ambiguity reduction that relatives engage in as they attempt to draw a boundary between family and business. More theoretically, it shows institutions can pre-exist the values placed at their core, reversing traditional views on institutions, logics, and values, and suggesting new research avenues on institutional change.
