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Personal political connections with politicians have positive contribution to the abnormal returns of firms (Hillman, Zardkoohi, & Bierman, 1999; Chung, 2006; Dinc, 2005; Faccio, 2006; Morck, Wolfenzon, & Yeung, 2005; Imai, 2006). Business owners and executives have incentives to invest in political connections because such relationship may enable their firms to gain access to key information not available to the competitors. However, the impact of political connections on the behaviors of firms has only received scant interest in the literature (Hillman, Withers, & Collins, 2009).

The objective of this research is to examine the impact of formal and informal political connections on the scope of family business diversification. We focus on family business because of their unique access to family ties or family social capital to achieve business objectives (Sharma, 2004; Steier, 2003). We test our hypotheses using panel data from 35 Taiwan-based family business groups from 1988 to 2002. Our analysis shows that the informal political connections possessed by the parent generation owners of family business groups are better predictors of family business diversification than the informal political connections established by the children generations owners. This result complements the resource dependence theory by suggesting that durable and non-transferable political connections possessed by family leaders have a unique effect in the corporate decision to diversify. Additionally, the personal ties between politicians and parent generation family leaders are “sticky.” They cannot be easily succeeded by the younger generations.

The purpose of this paper is to design a methodology to identify territory-linked family business groups (TLFBGs) in order to overcome the methodological challenges and ease studies about family business groups' (FBGs) impact on territories.

The paper applied an algorithm to a data set of firms located in Gipuzkoa that were registered in the SABI database in 2018.

The paper defined a new construct, TLFBGs, and proposed a methodology that automatized the identification of TLFBGs by a seven-stage algorithm that was intended to be applicable to any firm-level economic and financial data set, including all registered firms and not only listed firms.

TLFBGs unveil the real relevance that family businesses have in the territorial development, encouraging the political support to family business. Additionally, the methodology provided allows understanding growth processes of family business.

The paper defines a new construct, TLFBGs, that highlights both the underexplored links existing between family and territory and between family and business groups, providing the process and criteria to capture it. The paper opens up large-scale empirical research on the social (and economic) influence of TLFBGs in territorial development.

Based on the panel data analysis of Taiwan’s family business groups from 2000 to 2002, this research attempts to investigate the relationships among the types of ownership structure, particularistic ties, and the engagements in regional markets from a social capital perspective. The result indicates that a family business group’s use of particularistic ties is contingent on its relative centralization in decision‐making. Consequently, the family business group’s use of particularistic ties in subsidiaries significantly influences its engagements in regional markets. This study highlights the possible role of particularistic ties as a kind of firm‐specific advantage existing within family business groups when expanding internationally. Furthermore, it indicates that the indigenous particularistic ties intrinsic to Great China societies have implications for multinational companies in the context of this region.

Drawing on the principal-principal conflict and identity literatures, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the Agency Problem Type II-bis in the context of family business. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that the size of the family owner group is related to firm growth and that this relationship is moderated by the extent to which the family identifies with the firm.

The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 265 medium and large German family firms (FFs) via moderated hierarchical regression analysis.

The main findings suggest that business family identity moderates the inverted U-shaped relationship between the size of the family owner group and firm growth in such a way that FFs with medium-sized family owner groups and high levels of business family identity reach higher firm growth.

In the context of FFs fully owned by one family, family owners might have different strategic preferences, goals, and identities, thus potentially making them subject to the conflict that could arise among the different family owners in relation to growth expectations. Recognizing this problem could help family owners find potential solutions to ensure the well-being of both the family and the business.

The combination of family ownership structure and family ownership dynamics affects firm growth. Challenging the homogeneity of the family owner group, the authors highlight the role of Agency Problem Type II-bis in hindering growth of FFs. A finer-grained view of principal-principal conflicts in FFs is thus discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between corporate governance practices and internationalization through foreign direct investments in the context of family-owned business groups in India.

The comparative case study method is used to understand the relationship between corporate governance practices and internationalization using four family-owned business groups in India.

The ownership concentration negatively influences the internationalization, while transparency has a positive association. Professionalization of management helps in internationalization. Overall, good corporate governance practices have a positive influence on group internationalization.

This paper provides detailed discussions based on the case study research which would help the future research work on the relationship between corporate governance practices and internationalization.

The existing literature studies in this field in the context of emerging markets are inconclusive. Hence, this paper uses the case study method to understand the relationship better.

Corporate strategy and family business management.

The case is designed for usage in senior-level undergraduate courses of strategic management and managing family businesses.

This case study relates the story of the launch and development of Zayed Al Hussaini Group, a family business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The business had been established a year after the unionization of the different Emirates by the founder, Zayed Al Hussaini, in partnership with his brother. Following a series of strategic moves, such as acquisitions and divestures, and adverse family-related events, the Group was led solely by the founder himself. Over the years, Zayed Al Hussaini Group has grown to become a successful family business in various industries of its operation, but following the death of the founder's son, the company activities have been struck with chaos. Zayed's nephew, Ahmed, who had left the family business to continue his studies and work at McKinsey & Company in London, has been called back home after eight years to take the lead of the entire Group. However, he is faced with several challenges, such as dealing with the family gap he has developed over time and balancing family and business priorities. Will Ahmed be able to make the right decisions in the role and responsibilities that have been bestowed upon him?

To analyse the process of launching a family business and making strategic decisions for managing its development over time.

To assess the potential difficulties and challenges which are associated with managing a family-run organization.

To evaluate the effectiveness of decisions with regards to the company's growth and succession management planning.

To apply relevant theoretical concepts to the analysis of complex situations in the specific context of family businesses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

A successful five-generation family business group in India separates its ownership role from its operational management role to meet the needs of a more global economy. This includes hiring professional nonfamily business unit managers as well as including nonfamily directors on the corporate board.

The purpose of this paper is to propose advances for developing our understandings of valuable resources in small family firms. The focus is on group support behavior within firms. It is proposed that this behavior is unique and valuable within small family firms. Propositions are presented that are built upon previous work in psychology and family business research and is linked to the concept of familiness.

Two small family businesses are the two cases used to investigate the propositions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the owner/manager and several other staff within each firm.

The paper presents evidence for the propositions, showing that work group support is unique in family firms as it is based on factors beyond the workplace. These relationships have the potential to be strong, contributing positively to the firm’s competitive advantage.

Two in-depth case studies of firms are included in this investigation. They are in a similar industry and location. As the findings are similar it lends weight to the evidence for the propositions; however, care should be taken with generalizing to other firms in other industries.

This research pulls together previous evidence and understandings and applies them to a specific aspect of small family firms that has not previously been examined in depth. The increased understanding can help family firms leverage their unique competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to draw the perspective of dynamic adjustment costs, the author developed hypotheses regarding the relationships between the internationalization of business groups and first, key leaders of business groups who helped found the groups (i.e. founder-key leaders); second, business groups’ group-level decision teams where the majority of positions are held by members of the founding family (i.e. family-dominated decision teams); and third, business groups’ group-level decision teams where strong ties exist among these teams (i.e. strong-tie decision teams) because group-level top managers are simultaneously top managers of group affiliates.

This study used generalized least squares fixed-effects models to test its arguments about longitudinal data pertaining to 173 Taiwanese business groups’ foreign direct investments over a period of five years (2004-2008).

The results show that the presence of a founder-key leader and strong-tie group-level decision teams in a business group can positively affect the internationalization of business groups. However, family-dominated group-level decision teams in a business group can adversely affect the internationalization of business groups.

Using a dynamic managerial-capacities perspective, this study provides alternative explanations regarding the degree of business groups’ internationalization to demonstrate the links among business groups’ key leaders, group-level decision teams, and internationalization.

When deciding whether to expand abroad, managers at a given business group should carefully consider the characteristics of the group's management team because business groups engaging in such expansion are likely to incur dynamic adjustment costs. In this case, the dynamic managerial capacities of a business group play an important role in enabling the group to decrease dynamic adjustment costs. The differences among a group-level key leader's traits, a family-dominated group-level decision team's traits, and a strong-tie group-level decision team's traits will lead to distinct levels of dynamic managerial capacities within the group.

Given the increasing number of business groups entering international markets, this paper rests on the perspective of dynamic managerial capabilities and uses group-level evidence to clarify how the characteristics of key leaders and the characteristics of group-level decision teams in business groups affect the groups’ international expansion.

Peer groups have been established as one of the best tools for leadership learning for family business leaders. However, these groups remain underutilized because business leaders disengage and voluntarily create turnover from these groups. This study explores the perceptions of family business leaders concerning the usefulness, growth opportunities, and equity within peer learning groups to determine what factors impact retention in these groups.

Two surveys were administered to 321 family business owners and leaders through three large family business centers in different regions of the United States. Leaders were grouped into those who left versus those who remained in a peer learning group. Data were collected about their learning experiences and why they remained or voluntarily left a group.

Lack of equity was found to be the main determinant of turnover in peer learning groups. Peer learning groups need to consist of business owners along the same trajectory, career stage, and in similar stages of growing a family business in order to equally contribute to the group’s learning. Business leaders who are in peer learning groups they report as being equal also report that their groups are more helpful, trustworthy and create better-quality learning experiences.

Peer groups are important for peer-to-peer learning and continued education for family business leaders. Having a group of peers whom have dealt with similar issues can help business leaders overcome problems successfully. However, little research exists that examines what factors make these peer groups successful.