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The purpose of this paper is to examine how a Ghanaian migrant family business in Kent makes financial decisions and measures business growth within the framework of Social Network theory and focussing on influences such as family, cultural and social factors.

Case study: migrant Ghanaian family business owner in Kent, first generation who migrated to the UK after the year 2000. The business is a small and medium enterprise and running the business as a family.

The narrative highlights important aspects of cultural and social factors that are not usually considered in credit analysis or applications for a relationship with a mainstream financial services institution. It is also indicated that family and personal attributes and culture had the most social capital for the shop owner to use or explore in taking her financial decisions. The discussions provide a basic framework for future research.

There is a gap in the research of Ghanaian migrant family businesses in the UK, in particular of their financial decision making process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status, trends and potential future research areas in the field of financial decision-making process in family firms.

The bibliometric indicators and methods are applied in order to describe the publication activity and to analyze the contents of the articles. The material examined are the journals included in the SCOPUS, SAGE and EBSCO database and the peer-reviewed article, which contain in their titles, keywords or abstracts with a combination of phrases “family firms,” “family business” or “family enterprise” with “financial decision” or one of the subcategories: capital structure, investment decision, capital budgeting, working capital management or dividend policy. The study covers the period from 2000 to 2016.

Although the interest in family business research is growing rapidly, the area of financial decision making is underestimated. Despite of the fact that the vast majority of the studies into financial decisions in family firms is are focused on the capital structure, they do not give clear answers to the question of how the family businesses behave in this scope and what their true financial logic is. Additionally, the area of the investment decisions and dividend policy is rather not better left uncovered.

The analyses enable the identification of potential avenues for future research which could be vital to make an advancement in the consolidation of the discipline.

The analyses ought to have a potential meaning mainly for external institutions (especially financial institutions) in better understanding of the family businesses and their point of view.

This paper fulfills the need of a comprehensive review of financial decision making process in family firms. It provides a literature review and bibliography for the period between 2000 and 2016 for the use of both academicians and practitioners.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse how the intensive use of non-financial performance measures and the lack of an economic reality among Danish farmers have contributed to a low economic performance despite high productivity. The research ambition of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the managerial decision-making made by family business managers, in this case farmers, and how these decisions may impact financial performance.

The study is based on a case study including farmers, agricultural consultants and bankers. The analysis uses pragmatic constructivism to analyse the economic reality of the farmers included and the business topos among Danish farmers.

The main finding of the paper is that the dominating non-financial performance management techniques and a historically based strong emotional emphasis on size and production volume as the main success criteria for being a good farmer have led to a neglect of economic rationality. In addition, this practice has made the farmers blind to alternative possibilities for taking advantage of the resources available. The result has been an un-economic utopian reality.

The paper shows how the use of non-financial performance measures can lead to prolonging of a certain reality perception that may not be economically sustainable. Small family businesses such as family farms are likely to be more exposed to such risk because such businesses are run by a set of values that include more objectives that are more dominating than the profit objective. The paper concludes that family business managers must be open towards inputs from the society around the business, because family businesses may have a tendency to create their own reality that at some point may come in conflict with society of which the family business has to co-exist within.

A growing volume of family firm literature has argued that the preservation of family socioemotional wealth takes precedence over the pursuit of financial goals. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that builds knowledge regarding the two-way relationship between socioemotional and financial forms of wealth, to develop a more complete theory of wealth concerns that may inform family firm decision-making.

The authors conceptually examine contingencies affecting the relationship between financial and socioemotional wealth (in both causal directions).

The authors predict when one form of wealth (socioemotional/financial) is likely to dominate the other (financial/socioemotional) in the family firm’s strategic decisions.

The paper advances knowledge on the two-way relationship between socioemotional and financial forms of wealth providing a platform for further development in the nascent field of family business research, including our understanding of family firm decisions regarding control and influence over the family business, environmental policy, altruism toward family members, R&D, accounting choices and corporate diversification.

The purpose of this paper is to assessthe probable influence of some of the emotional costs and returns expected by owners on their family business sale decision; and examine if the perceived economic environment during the economic and financial crisis of 2008 had an impact on the intention to sell their family business.

The research is based on a sample of 69 family businesses responding to a postal questionnaire survey. The empirical study is made up of a descriptive analysis of the factors influencing the intention of a family business sale and an explanatory analysis of the sale intention.

The desire for family business renewal through family generational succession is the main emotional factor lying behind the decision to continue/sell the business. Furthermore, the financial and economic crisis does not seem to be a factor that accentuates the intention to sell the family business even if firms’ financial performance has declined.

Future research could implement a direct measure of owners’ performance thresholds and explicitly integrate the moderating role of “Perceived economic environment.”

By showing that continuity is a key concern for family business owners, the research invites them to effectively prepare their succession instead of postponing this strategic process given its significance in guaranteeing the survivability of the family business.

Executives who perceived economic conditions as very poor are less likely to consider the sale of the business in the horizon of two years than executives perceiving them as “normal.” The study confirms that in family-owned businesses, for the owner-managers and the active and serene family shareholders, the sale price does not compensate for their emotional regret evaluated through the loss of the family business’ emotional value.

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of the overconfidence of finance managers on the capital structure decisions of family-run businesses in the Indian scenario. Furthermore, this study aims to demonstrate that measurable managerial characteristics explain the capital structure decisions of managers.

The qualitative approach to research, which aims at understanding a given phenomenon among the experts, is followed. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 21 overconfident finance managers of family-owned businesses. Content analysis is used to analyse the collected data regarding capital structure decisions into several themes to fully explore the issue in the Indian scenario.

In terms of preference for cash or debt, most of the responding overconfident finance managers of family-run businesses agreed that cash is the preferred source of financing over debt financing. This is due to the biased behaviour of overconfident managers, who consider lower availability of debt as a reason to prefer cash over debt financing. The present study reports that overconfident finance managers prefer short- to long-term debt financing. These managers raise certain practical issues, such as stringent debt terms and inflexible repayment schedules, that arise in relation to the long-term debt market. The study also finds that overconfident finance managers do not fully use tax savings. Respondents reported a lack of access to the debt market and a lack of expertise in capital structure decisions as factors in these capital structure decisions. In addition, the study explores various factors, such as the role of government, the Central Bank of India and industry practices, in relation to capital structure decisions. The study finds that the capital structure decisions of these overconfident finance managers are suboptimal because of the presence of overconfidence bias.

This study gathers information from respondents who are finance managers, not top-level managers, of family businesses; the decision not to interview the higher-ranking managers is a potential limitation of the present study. Another limitation is the small number of respondents in a specific firm size. Because of these factors, the generalisability of the findings of this study will obviously be restricted.

The present study has several practical implications. The first is the recognition of overconfidence bias as it affects the decision-making of finance managers. Executives, especially finance executives, will benefit from the recognition of overconfidence bias and will understand how the presence of such bias impacts corporate decision-making. Managers will understand that bias leads to faulty decision-making. The study will provide indirect feedback to policymakers and regulators in terms of understanding the role of macroeconomic variables in economic decisions. The qualitative approach followed in the present study may enhance the understanding of capital structure decisions from a psychological perspective. The majority of studies in the review of literature adopt quantitative approaches; so the qualitative approach adopted here represents a methodological innovation, and it may provide a deeper understanding of the matter.

The existing literature includes quantitative research aimed at understanding the impact of CEO overconfidence on various corporate policies such as capital budgeting, mergers and acquisitions, dividend policy and capital structure decisions. Quantitative research into the presence of overconfidence bias among executives and its impact on corporate policies returns mixed results. To fulfil the need for studies of overconfidence bias among executives with practical implications, this study explores the presence of overconfidence bias among finance managers in family-run businesses and investigates the impact of overconfidence on capital structure decisions.

The purpose of this research is to study the financial, family, and cultural incidences on the investment policy of unlisted Moroccan family firms passed on to the second generation or more in times of crisis.

The design is based on an innovative methodological approach of contextualization in times of crisis with 20 unlisted Moroccan family firms, 3 sociologists and 2 researcher-experts in times of crisis.

This research work gives rise to a result that can be summarized through a logic of combined rationality. Explicitly, in the family business, it is necessary to combine the two effects: financial rationality in times of crisis, and the emotionality that reigns in family logic (everything that is culture, family traditions and psychological backgrounds) to make arbitrations in terms of investments.

Thus, the originality of this research is rooted by a field made up of transmitted Moroccan family firms. The major problems related to the investment of the family firm begin to emerge once there are a multitude of generations involved in the management. This accentuates the family and socio-cultural effects of family reputation and religiosity and the firm's strategic imitation. In this sense, this paper proposes a way forward in the research on family businesses, by integrating family and cultural logics following a hybrid approach that integrates these factors with classical financial logics.

Successors' unwillingness to participate in the family business is known to impede intergenerational succession. However, little is known about why those considered eligible, do not choose to become the next chief executive officer (CEO). The authors investigate why some eligible successors withdraw from the succession process while others remain involved. The purpose of this paper is to build theory for which the authors made use of purposive sampling techniques that complied with certain criteria.

The authors use an inductive, exploratory multi-case study design and investigate six Australian food manufacturers.

This paper's analysis reveals that successors' decisions are driven by dimensions: pursued outcome and reciprocity. Eligible successors withdrawing from succession are concerned about personal financial sustainability and the business' growth potential; this is accompanied by negative exchanges with the incumbent.

The authors studied a limited number of organizations and these were mainly managed by owner/founders. In this type of organization, successors have been widely exposed to the business and its struggles from an early age. Differences can be present in businesses managed by later generations whose emotional investment, therefore, socio-emotional needs might be different from the cohort being investigated. Second, the authors' aim in carrying out this study was to build theory for which we made use of purposive sampling techniques that complied with certain criteria. Further studies aiming at generalizable results would shed light on the usefulness of the typology and whether other rules apply to the incumbent–successor relationship while ascertaining how the exchanges contribute to the successor's decision to remain or withdraw from the family business.

This study reveals the crucial nature of the incumbent in the succession process. Their role is not limited to how they interact with the successor but how deeply incumbents manage to understand and monitor the successor's motivations and concerns. Incumbents aiming at retaining eligible successors need to thoroughly understand successors' motivations for agreeing to become the next CEO.

This paper is one of the first to investigate successor withdrawal post training. The authors' methodology includes the responses of non-family senior managers to provide an objective view on the family dynamics.

Research has demonstrated that family businesses limit the goal of maximizing profits in exchange for maintaining control of the company and passing control to future generations. However, these decisions are not always shared by the stakeholders who are outside the family context, making tensions arise within the company that may affect profitability and the share prices of the family business. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the internal tensions in family businesses in the value-added (VA) distribution, and whether these tensions harm their performance as a result of the restrictions under which these companies operate.

A factor analysis has been used to measure the tension that results from VA distribution of a sample of 105 Spanish listed firms for the 2005-2012 period. A regression analysis has been used to study the impact of this tension on their share prices.

Results show that being a family business has a positive effect on the business tension factor and that returns and share prices are inversely related to tension factors. Thus, the authors conclude that the decision to maintain control over the family business threatens profitability and share prices.

An analysis of distribution of VA in family businesses sheds light on whether or not the management in its decisions preserves its socioemotional wealth (SEW) generating tensions among its economic agents, affecting its profitability and continuity. This knowledge is important for company stakeholders and future investors.

This is the first study in which the value-added statement is used to analyse how the management style of firms, and especially family businesses, are seeking to preserve their SEW and internal tensions generated by them.

Se ha investigado que las empresas familiares limitan el objetivo de maximización del beneficio a cambio de mantener el control de la empresa y de transmitir ese control a futuras generaciones. Sin embargo, no siempre esas decisiones son compartidas por los accionistas que se encuentran fuera del contexto familiar, es entonces cuando surgirán tensiones en el interior de la empresa que podrán afectar a la rentabilidad y a la cotización en bolsa de la empresa familiar. Nuestro objetivo es analizar las tensiones internas que sufren las empresas familiares en la distribución del valor añadido y si estas perjudican sus resultados por las restricciones en las que basan su funcionamiento.

Se ha realizado un análisis factorial para medir la tensión que resulta de la distribución del VA en una muestra de 105 empresas españolas cotizadas durante el periodo 2005-2012. Un análisis de regresión ha sido utilizado para estudiar el impacto de esta tensión sobre los precios de sus acciones.

Los resultados muestran que ser empresa familiar ejerce un efecto positivo en el factor tensión empresarial y que, tanto la rentabilidad, como el precio de las acciones, están inversamente relacionados con los factores de tensión. Por ello concluimos que la decisión de mantener el control en las empresas familiares pone en riesgo la rentabilidad y cotización de las acciones.

Un análisis de la distribución del VA en las empresas familiares arroja luz sobre si la dirección, mediante sus decisiones, preserva o no su riqueza socioemocional generando tensiones entre los agentes económicos, afectando a su rentabilidad y continuidad. Este conocimiento es importante para los grupos de interés de la empresa así como para futuros inversores.

Este es el primer estudio en que el Estado del Valor Añadido es utilizado para analizar el estilo de gestión de las empresas, y especialmente como las empresas familiares tratan de preservar su riqueza socioemocional, y las tensiones internas generadas por ello.

This study analyses whether human resource management (HRM), through the use of four sets of high-performance work policies (HPWPs) (i.e. selection, training, motivation and opportunity policies), mediates the relationship between socioemotional wealth (SEW)—defined as a unique set of nonfinancial family goals—and firm financial performance when family firms face a high-risk context.

Hypotheses were statistically tested using a structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology with a cross-sectional sample of 196 medium-sized and private family firms in a high-risk context in Spain.

The results indicate that the relationship between SEW and financial performance in family firms is fully mediated by the use of HPWPs, especially by training and motivation HR policies. The importance given to preserving SEW influences the use of four sets of HPWPs when family firms show clear evidence of being confronted by a financial decline (i.e. a high-risk context). However, to improve their financial results to avoid the firm's failure and thus the loss of their SEW, only those HR policies that focus on training and motivation made a significant and positive contribution to the firm financial performance.

This study contributes to the literature on family firms and HRM by adopting an alternative theoretical framework to understand how the importance of nonfinancial family goals may affect employee structures and management policies, thereby improving financial performance in family firms.