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1 – 10 of over 23000Esra Memili, Kimberly A. Eddleston, Thomas M. Zellweger, Franz W. Kellermanns and Tim Barnett
Drawing on organizational identity theory, we develop a model linking family ownership and expectations, entrepreneurial risk taking, and image in family firms to explain family…
Abstract
Drawing on organizational identity theory, we develop a model linking family ownership and expectations, entrepreneurial risk taking, and image in family firms to explain family firm growth. Testing our model on a sample of 163 Swiss family firms, we suggest that entrepreneurial risk taking and image can both lead to growth in family firms. We further find that family expectations have an influence on both entrepreneurial risk taking and family firm image. This finding suggests that family firms may benefit from two growth paths – forward looking risk taking and the image of the family firm that builds on the past, and that these paths are nurtured by family expectations.
Marco Galvagno, Vincenzo Pisano and Sonia M. Strano
This study aims to review family business branding research, elaborate a new framework integrating family business branding and corporate brand management literature and finally…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to review family business branding research, elaborate a new framework integrating family business branding and corporate brand management literature and finally identify future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric analysis was conducted to present the main research topics within family business branding.
Findings
The contributions of this study are threefold. First, this study maps the main themes of family business branding research and highlights its fragmented nature. Second, this study proposes an overarching framework based on signaling theory, attempts to bridge the family business branding and corporate brand management literature and provides a lead for future research. Third, this study stresses the role of brand construct in family business branding.
Originality/value
This study represents an important step in the identification of a new theoretical framework that best fits the investigation of family business branding.
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Christopher Penney, James Vardaman, Laura Marler and Victoria Antin-Yates
Research suggests family businesses often pursue risky or aggressive strategies despite the desire to preserve socioemotional wealth (SEW), which is thought to lead to…
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests family businesses often pursue risky or aggressive strategies despite the desire to preserve socioemotional wealth (SEW), which is thought to lead to conservativism in family firm strategic decision making. The purpose of this paper is to resolve this apparent contradiction by presenting a model that describes the screening criteria used by family business decision-makers when evaluating strategic opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model relies on insights derived from image theory to resolve apparent contradictions inherent in the SEW perspective’s implications for family firms’ risky strategic decisions.
Findings
The proposed model suggests new strategic opportunities in family firms are evaluated through an unconscious, schema-driven decision process and that the preservation of SEW does not preclude risky strategic directions, but instead serves as an unconscious screening criteria for strategic opportunities.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by expanding the understanding of family-firm strategic decision-making to include considerations of the decision’s fit with the family’s principles, goals and strategic plan rather than solely to overall risk to SEW. Thus, the paper presents a detailed model of family-firm strategic decision-making that relies on insights from image theory.
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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relevance of conducting brand management research in a family firm context and to identify future research directions by reviewing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relevance of conducting brand management research in a family firm context and to identify future research directions by reviewing and structuring the existing literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The potential consequences of being a family firm on internal organizational processes and stakeholders’ external perception are depicted. Afterwards the literature considering brand management research in family firms is reviewed systematically (n=41) and structured by applying the Organizational Viewpoint Framework. Relevant research questions are derived based on the findings and their practical relevance is tested.
Findings
The contributions are threefold. First, depicting the effects of being a family firm on the organization and its stakeholders highlights the relevance of conducting brand management research in family firms. Second, structuring the literature regarding the effects of being a family firm on organizational identity, intended brand image, construed brand image, and reputation helps derive research questions of theoretical and practical relevance that will serve the field as a guide for future research directions. Third, by extending the Organizational Viewpoint Framework originating from brand management research with the element of being a family firm, a further attempt at bridging both research fields is undertaken.
Originality/value
This paper represents an important next step in the development of this research field by highlighting the importance of conducting brand management research in a family firm context and by structuring existent research to depict future research opportunities with theoretical and practical relevance.
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Laura E. Marler, James M. Vardaman and David G. Allen
Human resource management is an understudied but burgeoning topic in the family business scholarly domain. This chapter provides a summary review of the existing literature on…
Abstract
Human resource management is an understudied but burgeoning topic in the family business scholarly domain. This chapter provides a summary review of the existing literature on human resource management in family businesses and offers pathways for future research. The authors cluster the extant research into topic areas of compensation, recruitment and selection, training, employee performance, and turnover, and offer future research directions for each. In identifying gaps and tension in the literature, the chapter also highlights several broader theoretical pathways for future research. These opportunities include further inquiry into the outcomes of bifurcation bias, or the disparate treatment between family and non-family employees, the nuanced ways family firms recruit and select new employees, the role of high-performance work systems in family firms, the ways image considerations influence human resource practices in family firms, and the application of social network perspectives.
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Katrin Schwaiger, Anita Zehrer and Teresa Spiess
This study determines the influence of employer image on industry attractiveness in small and medium-sized hospitality firms by using the instrumental-symbolic framework adapted…
Abstract
Purpose
This study determines the influence of employer image on industry attractiveness in small and medium-sized hospitality firms by using the instrumental-symbolic framework adapted from marketing literature.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 405 employees and 429 family firm owners in Bavaria were surveyed using a quantitative research design. The authors used linear and hierarchical multiple regression analyses for hypothesis testing using the variables included in the instrumental-symbolic employer image framework.
Findings
The study revealed differences in perception between employees and owners. Data showed that employees' ratings for instrumental attributes, such as job security and income options, and symbolic attributes, such as industry attractiveness, significantly differ from those of owners. Consistent with the instrumental-symbolic framework, owners' perceptions of symbolic attributes predicted their perceived industry attractiveness.
Practical implications
Owners may examine how their industry's image needs to be changed to gain positive perception by current and potential employees. Policymakers may benefit from the study’s results that may help them find the right focal points for strategies in promoting Bavaria's hospitality sector. As a result, an adequate and positive image is created that attracts workers for this sector.
Originality/value
The study addresses the rather under-researched stakeholder group of existing hospitality employees, particularly with respect to employer image. Furthermore, owners and employees are compared, regardless of their individually different relationships to the business. Employer image is connected with overall perceived industry attractiveness, stating that the industry comprises individual employing businesses and thus depends on employer image.
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Mariasole Bannò, Giorgia Maria D'Allura, Emilia Filippi and Sandro Trento
This study examines the propensity to innovate in automation of family firms (FFs) based on the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the propensity to innovate in automation of family firms (FFs) based on the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This study’s analysis is based on three aspects. First, the authors consider three main non-economic goals and priorities of FFs: the family’s relationship with employees (read as to care for their satisfaction and well-being); the inner pride of building and maintaining the family and firm image and reputation; and the inner feeling to be socially responsible. Second, the authors consider how these goals and priorities vary among FFs according to four dimensions: family ownership, the presence of family members on the board of directors, the involvement of young successors, and the presence of founding and later generations. Finally, the consequences of automation are considered: lower firm employment, lower employees’ satisfaction and well-being, and higher firm productivity. The analysis is based on a sample of 4,150 Italian firms.
Findings
The analysis revealed that FFs are less prone to innovate in automation than non-FFs. Specifically, family ownership, the presence of family members on the board of directors, and the presence of founding generation are negatively associated with innovation in automation. Instead, the involvement of young successors and the presence of later generation are positively associated with innovation in automation.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first investigation that, based on SEW, examines how FFs act on the decision to innovate in automation, thereby providing empirical evidence.
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Gloria Aparicio, Amaia Maseda, Txomin Iturralde and Pilar Zorrilla
Following a bibliometric approach, this study examines research on brand and branding in family businesses (FBs) to identify influential sources and main areas of knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
Following a bibliometric approach, this study examines research on brand and branding in family businesses (FBs) to identify influential sources and main areas of knowledge, proposes an integrative framework that provides a holistic perspective of this field with an interdisciplinary cross-fertilization view and explores new avenues for future research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 449 bibliographic references retrieved from the Web of Science database through a systematic process, the authors employed bibliographic coupling analysis to visualize the relationships among key works in the field and subsequently performed a literature review to deepen the analysis.
Findings
The bibliographic coupling analysis structured the existing research into six thematic clusters. Four of them follow an internal perspective and focus on FB identity and its influence on the construction of corporate brand identity, whereas the other two follow an external perspective that explores how FB brands are communicated and perceived by stakeholders and the influence of corporate brands and branding on FB image and reputation. Drawing from an in-depth review of the literature, this study offers a novel integrative framework, together with a set of proposals with managerial and theoretical implications.
Practical implications
The proposed framework aims to clarify the relationship between internal identity and management to build and communicate a FB brand. The study also shows the symbiosis that exists among family values, corporate reputation, brand equity and awareness in FBs. The existing interconnection between the family and business generates unique associations that are difficult to imitate.
Originality/value
This study is the first documented attempt at a bibliometric analysis of brands and branding in FBs, which serves to clarify the linkages between different research streams and connecting marketing, organization and FB literature to guide future research. Moreover, the integrative framework provides researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of its scope, highlighting the importance of corporate brand strategies beyond the boundaries of marketing departments.
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Susanne Beck and Peter Kenning
The long-term survival of companies depends strongly on successful new product introductions. However, insufficient customer new product acceptance (NPA) often leads to high…
Abstract
Purpose
The long-term survival of companies depends strongly on successful new product introductions. However, insufficient customer new product acceptance (NPA) often leads to high failure rates for manufacturers. Retailers, as intermediaries between the company and the customer, often obtain a crucial role as primary touchpoint. Previous research shows that customers’ perception of a company is transferable to its products and thus influences NPA. Family firms, as successful company type, are supposed to positively influence NPA. The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether manufacturers achieve a strategic advantage regarding NPA when choosing retailer that are perceived as family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Conducting an online survey, the authors tested whether the family firm image (FFI) of a retailer’s brand influences customers’ belief in the trustworthiness of a new product brand and their purchase intention, which reflect two components of NPA.
Findings
The results indicate that a strongly perceived FFI has a direct positive effect and, through perceived trustworthiness, an indirect effect on NPA. Those effects are moderated by the customers’ perceived uncertainty about the product. The authors show that aside from increasing trustworthiness, a retailer’s FFI creates a substantial strategic advantage that increases NPA and hence decreases manufacturers’ failure rates.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to investigate retailer brand influence on NPA. By providing a new definition and measurement of customers’ family firm perception, this study represents the first quantitative intent to assess the consequences of such perception.
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Lázaro Rodriguez-Ariza, Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero and Manuel Bermejo-Sánchez
Based on earnings management (EM) practices, the purpose of this research is to analyze their market social consequences on corporate reputation. Moreover, this paper illustrates…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on earnings management (EM) practices, the purpose of this research is to analyze their market social consequences on corporate reputation. Moreover, this paper illustrates this impact in the context of family firms which are led and controlled by family members, whose main interest is the long-run survival through succession.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample comprising 1,169 international listed companies for the period 2006-2010 was used.
Findings
The empirical evidence shows the negative impact of these discretionary accounting practices on corporate image. However, family firms have more incentives for controlling and monitoring managerial decisions, avoiding information asymmetries and, thus, EM behavior and their subsequent loss of reputation. Therefore, fewer negative effects on corporate reputation are observed in highly concentrated ownership structures as a result of the negative link between family control and EM.
Originality/value
This study presents a number of contributions because of its focus on specific discretionary practices and on family firms. This study contributes to previous literature on family firms, as previous papers do not tend to focus on EM issues. Moreover, in contrast to most of the studies that have focused on only one country, we use an international panel database. This leads to potentially more powerful and generalized results. In addition, this paper is the first attempt (to the authors' knowledge) to study the possible impact of EM on corporate reputation in the family firm context.
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