Search results

This paper examines the effect of personality disorders, namely loneliness and shyness, on the family business successors' attitude towards social networking services (SNS).

In this study the personality disorder and attitude towards using WhatsApp are analysed in a sample of 511 family business successors, aged 18 and up to more than 50 years. Participants completed questionnaires designed for the purposes of the study specifically using for loneliness factor the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1978) and for shyness the Sociability Scale (Cheek and Buss, 1981). We use two statistical methods: the first statistical technique is an exploratory factor analysis to show that shyness can be measured down into two dimensions (1) lack of confidence and (2) hesitancy, while loneliness also can be measured into the two dimensions: (1) amiability and (2) abandonment. The second statistical method uses structural equation modelling (SEM) to fit the data to the proposed model.

The results indicate that neither a lack of confidence nor amiability has a significant effect on the attitude towards instant messaging, while hesitancy and abandonment both have significant effects on attitude. Moreover, abandonment has a stronger effect on attitude than hesitancy.

In this study were not included other related social disorders that other scholars normally study in such projects. For example, narcissism, addiction and socially anxious are very important and have results that conflict with ours.

The causal relations between the two independent factors of shyness and loneliness and the dependent factor of attitude towards using an Internet and SNS in family businesses from the Arab world have not yet been clearly and fully explored. This study aims to fill this gap through studying the impact of personality disorder (loneliness and shyness) on attitude to use SNS by the successors of family businesses.

The study aspires to enhance comprehension of the intricate interplay between supply chain management (SCM) and resilience in family businesses, thereby offering valuable insights to managers and policymakers endeavouring to foster resilience in uncertain environments.

Commencing from the premise that family businesses (FBs) prioritize the preservation of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) when formulating strategic decisions, this study endeavours to advance understanding of supply chain practices adopted by FBs and their direct impact on resilience during crisis situations or economically challenging periods. Through an exploratory case study of nine FBs, the present research reveals four pivotal strategies in SCM that contribute to their resilience: (i) reorganization of inventory management; (ii) cultivating close relationships with suppliers; (iii) emphasizing product quality and customer retention; and (iv) implementing cost reduction measures to bolster resilience. The aim of the study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the intricate interplay between SCM and resilience in FBs, thereby offering valuable insights to managers and policymakers endeavouring to foster resilience in uncertain environments.

Our approach offers a theoretical framework for SCM aligned with prior research on the interplay between characteristics of family businesses and resilience strategies. Furthermore, this paper illustrates how factors such as the emphasis on high-quality products and services by family businesses contribute to achieving non-economic objectives that owners adopt to reconcile family and business needs, creating intrinsic added value for the company. It reveals various challenges in SCM, including inventory organization changes, supplier closures and the significance of customer retention. Family businesses are implementing product and technology enhancements and leveraging digitization to enhance supply chain processes.

This paper contributes significantly to the field of FBs by highlighting the crucial role of SCM in enhancing business resilience during crises. It empirically examines how the SEW characteristics of FBs influence the reconfiguration of their supply chains to enhance resilience, presenting a theoretical model for this context. Our theoretical framework employs an SEW perspective to elucidate how FBs respond to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting their SCM processes to safeguard their social and emotional legitimacy, organizational visibility and reputation. These adaptations gain particular relevance during crises or turbulent conditions, potentially leading to alterations in how FBs formulate their supply chain strategies and manage supply chain-related processes.

This perspective article highlights the importance of future research that explores how intra-family communication in family businesses was affected during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper is based on a literature review of current perspectives on the role of informal communication in family businesses. The author offers some research insight into contributing to redirect the study of informal intra-family communication in family businesses.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential effects have presented a series of challenges that possess the capacity to affect communication in any business. Nevertheless, these challenges in informal communication within family members hold a particular relevance for family businesses and require a reassessment of the fundamental assumptions that serve as the basis for research in challenging times.

This paper synthesizes the existing research on informal communication in the family business context and proposes some key research opportunities.

This research furthers our understanding of the interaction between the fields of entrepreneurship and family business. It presents a framework that introduces the family dynamic to Timmons’ driving forces model of entrepreneurship. The framework highlights the influence of the family in the entrepreneurship process and the importance of the fit among the three driving forces and the family. It highlights the importance of, and the pivotal roles played by, outside boards of directors when entrepreneurial activities are undertaken by family businesses. Using extracts from interviews with family and non‐family executives and board members, the research employs a single case study that describes an actual series of events to provide a practical application of the theory.

In the context of the current financial crisis, this paper aims to examine values and spirituality in the modern workplace.

Using contemporary examples and examining recent literature on spirituality and loneliness, the paper considers the concept of loneliness and argues that this may stem from an over‐preoccupation with the workplace and employment‐based achievement, at the expense of having rounded lives as human beings.

It is demonstrated that, over the last decade at least, the levels of stress in life and work have risen noticeably. In this context, leaders need even more to be forgers of a sense of meaning and purpose in the workplace and engage the hearts and minds of staff towards improved outcomes.

The current financial crisis is also a major spiritual crisis. Now there seems to be a growing gap between leaders and the led, and an increase in what the author terms “soul‐less leadership”, which fails to engage and motivate and inspire. The author calls on leaders in this crisis of capitalism to work and engage with staff in health and social care, so that those serving at the frontline feel‐valued and supported, developed and engaged in a common purpose.

This paper aims to reveal the marshalling of an emotion – loneliness – over time for the construction of relationships between advertisers and consumers between 1909 and 1934, paying attention to the shifting contexts in which these relationships were built, maintained and extended. It also draws attention to the ways in which advertising and marketing work in society, and advances the understanding of the development of consumer culture in Australia.

The paper uses textual analysis of letters from readers and editorial content published in the magazine over a 25-year period, supplemented by material from newspapers and memoirs.

The paper reveals how a women’s magazine marshalled the loneliness of Australian women, especially rural Australian women, to attach them to the magazine and its advertisers. Over 25 years, the magazine editors built a reservoir of trust between readers and the magazine. When the economy turned, this reservoir could be drawn upon to maintain reader attachment and maximise sales.

This paper examines the use of emotion in just one magazine. A comparative study would be beneficial to see whether this exploitation of emotion was widespread.

The paper suggests the importance of emotion as a tool for attaching consumers to brands and for maintaining that attachment through financial difficulties.

This paper supports the turn to the study of emotion in history and, specifically, in the development of consumer culture.

Present study investigated the influence of female descendent entrepreneur's self-compassion on the perceived succession success of small-family businesses (S-FB) with the mediating mechanism of financial literacy.

The primary data was collected from 319 female descendent entrepreneurs who were designated as chairwomen, and managing director positions in their retails sector S-FBs. The purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. The provided hypotheses are tested using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. This study followed multiple regression analyses to see the influence of self-compassion (mindfulness, self-isolation, self-judgment and over-identification) on financial literacy and perceived succession success.

The results reveal that female descendent entrepreneurs mindfulness and over-identification significantly increase but self-isolation decreases the likelihood of successful succession transition. Moreover, female descendent entrepreneur's financial literacy increases mindfulness and overidentification while it decreases self-isolation and improves the likelihood of succession success. However, financial literacy does not influence self-judgmental traits and perceived succession success.

This study highlights a vital issue, how the financial literacy of female descendent entrepreneurs manages their self-compassion and increases the likelihood of succession success. In addition, it covers a research gap and helps the S-FBs to improve their survival rate by focusing on the descendent entrepreneur's self-compassion and financial literacy.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by emphasizing predictors that influence the successful succession transition to subsequent generations. This study determines the influence of self-compassion of female descendent entrepreneurs on perceived succession success and financial literacy as a mediator by using the self-control theory. The study can be useful to family business consultants, policymakers and family businesses.

In this chapter, the authors examined expatriates that self-initiate their international work for personal reasons and the factors that affect their departure from an organization. The authors conducted a systematic review of self-initiated expatriation (SIE) and its definitions in order to propose an integrated definition of SIE and model its nomological network. In addition, the authors construct a roadmap for future research directions in the SIE domain. Finally, using a qualitative research design, the authors studied the organizational practices designed to reduce SIE turnover in an exemplary multinational organization. Overall, our contributions are enhanced clarity of the SIE construct and the theorized practice of SIE retention.

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of information and communications technologies (ICT) in creating cities that are attractive, healthy and prosperous places to live, work and visit.

Considers technological developments in information and communications technologies in the short‐ and medium‐term and their application in the urban environment.

IT is developing faster than ever and will be a useful tool in the redevelopment of cities. Short‐term developments such as wireless LANs may be unglamorous but have large potential for opening up new areas of opportunities, both in social and business uses. In the mid‐term, these networks will combine with ambient intelligence to make a smart digital air overlay, making every part of a city electronically enabled. The result will be big improvement in public transport and city architecture. Other IT developments will improve health, governance and security. If managed well, future urban society will be happier, less lonely, more prosperous, healthier and more involved in decision making.

Offers a personal view of the ways in which advances in information technologies can make a positive contribution to urban environments over the next ten to 15 years.

During the last 40 years, the growth and impact of UK business schools have been significant. Relatively few studies have reviewed how business school deans emerge and grow. This paper aims to explore the experiences and psychometric profiles of UK business school leaders to understand their tenures, problems, dilemmas and succession issues.

The study comprised 16 semi‐structured interviews with business school deans and Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) questionnaires completed by deans and aspiring deans (associate deans and heads of department). The study uses the executive life cycle and concepts of social capital as theoretical frameworks to understand the dean's role.

The study revealed a pattern of individuals working in their first deanship at their third business school. Their career trajectories highlighted the usefulness of consultancy skills similar to those of a partner in a professional service firm. The importance of the dean's role in terms of business school fit, creating a differentiation strategy and team building were emphasised. The psychometric preferences of the deans in the sample indicated Jungian extroversion, tough mindedness, seeing patterns and making connections, strategic thinking and a tendency to bring issues to closure. Recommendations are made for the development of a more heterogeneous, transnational cadre of business school deans and improved dialogue with heads of universities to understand the positive contribution of business school leaders as changing business models are needed in turbulent times.

There are few explanations of the roles and functioning of business school deans in practice. The insights gained are valuable for business school deans and are, more broadly, of interest to heads of universities and executive search firms. The paper is theoretically and practically relevant to building leadership capabilities in knowledge intensive organisations and professional service firms.