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Over a long period of time, the evolution and development of indigenous management theories and practices in Africa have been seriously distracted and hindered by European colonialism and Western education. The colonial administration introduced Western management theories and practices, considered as the drivers and the remedy for the continent’s socio-politico-economic development. Western scholarship and literature generally undervalued and condemned the management proficiency and practices of early African civilisations, as evidenced, for instance, in the building of the great Egyptian pyramids. Foreign management systems generally botched the development of indigenous African business practices as they failed to achieve the expected goals. We argue that the development of indigenous African management practices and philosophy ought to be rooted in the African culture, value system and beliefs to provide the practical way for the efficient and effective running of organisations in Africa. Nevertheless, there are still indigenous family business management practices that can be co-opted into today’s business practices. The Ubuntu management system and the ‘new management techniques’, which emphasise humanness, communalism and African patriotism, provide the veritable starting point for the development of indigenous African management philosophy. The chapter starts with a brief description of family business in Africa. Highlighting the relevant indigenous management practices, to mention, strategic process, governance, human resource and succession planning then follow in this order. The next section is on the origins of the indigenous management practices and then we conclude with a section on unique differences from Western models and provide advice to educators and practitioners. As an approach, the cases that have been used are for illustration purposes and do not claim to be representative of African indigenous business practices since Africa is too diverse.

This purpose of this study is to examine the fluidity of family life which continues to attract attention. This is increasingly significant for the intergenerational relationship between adult children and their elderly parents. Using practice theory, the aims are to understand the role of food in elderly families and explore how family practices are maintained when elderly transition into care.

A phenomenological research approach was used as the authors sought to build an understanding of the social interactions between family and their lifeworld.

This study extends theory on the relationship between the elderly parent and their family and explores through practice theory how families performed their love, how altered routines and long standing rituals provided structure to the elderly relatives and how care practices were negotiated as the elderly relatives transitioned from independence to dependence and towards care. A theoretical framework is introduced that provides guidance for the transition stages and the areas for negotiation.

This research has implications for food manufacturers and marketers, as the demand for healthy food for the elderly is made more widely available, healthy and easy to prepare. The limitations of the research are due to the sample located in East Yorkshire only.

This research has implications for brand managers of food manufacturers and supermarkets that need to create product lines that target this segment by producing healthy, convenience food.

It is also important for health and social care policy as the authors seek to understand the role of food, family and community and how policy can be devised to provide stability in this transitional and uncertain lifestage.

This research extends the body of literature on food and the family by focussing on the elderly cared for and their family. The authors show how food can be construed as loving care, and using practice theory, a theoretical framework is developed that can explain the transitions and how the family negotiates the stages from independence to dependence.

A core concept of work–home interface research is boundary permeability – the frequency with which elements from one domain cross, or permeate, the boundary of another domain. Yet, there remains ambiguity as to what these elements are and how these permeations impact important outcomes such as role satisfaction and role performance. The authors introduce a multidimensional perspective of work–home boundary permeability, identifying five forms of boundary permeation: task, psychological, role referencing, object, and people. Furthermore, based on the notion that employee control over boundary permeability behavior is the key to achieving role satisfaction and role performance, the authors examine how organizations’ HR practices, leadership, and norms impact employee control over boundary permeability in the work and home domains. The authors conclude with an agenda for future research.

This research investigates the introduction of accounting practices into small family businesses, based on socioemotional wealth theory.

A multiple-case study was conducted gathering data through interviews and documents (proprietary and public). The sample included six businesses (five Mexican and one American) from different manufacturing and service industries.

It was found that, although owners control the implementation of accounting practices, others (including family employees, non-family employees and external experts) at times propose practices. The owner’s control can be relaxed, or even eliminated, as the result of proposals from some family employees. However, the degree of influence of family employees is not linked to the closeness of the family relationship, but rather to the owners’ perceived competence of the family employee, indicating an interaction between competence and experience on one side, and family ties on the other.

First, the owners chose which documentary data to provide and who was accessible for interviews, potentially biasing findings. Second, the degree of influence family employees can exert might change over time. Third, the study included a limited number of interviews, which can increase the risk of bias. Finally, all firms studied were still managed by the founder. It is possible that small family businesses that have undergone a succession process might incorporate accounting practices differently.

Organizations promoting the implementation of managerial accounting practices should be aware that, in addition to the owner, some family employees and external experts could influence business practices. Accountants already providing accounting services to small family business are also a good source for proposing managerial accounting practices

This study contributes to theory in four ways. First, it expands socioemotional theory to include the perceived competence of the family employee as a potential moderator in the decision-making process. Second, it categorizes the actors who can influence managerial accounting practices in small family businesses. Third, it further refines the role of these actors, based on their degree of influence. Fourth, it proposes a model that describes the introduction of managerial accounting practices in small family business.

Much of the literature relating to human resource management (HRM) has attempted to demonstrate that the “Human resource” is the most valued asset in a company. Large companies have revolutionised their approach to the training and development of their personnel in order to maximise their “competitive edge”. Hotly debated is whether investment in “good HRM” is linked to commercial success. However, very little is known about HRM practices within the small‐ to medium‐size business (SME) and even less is known about the practice within a family business. This survey describes the HRM practices of SMEs (both family and non‐family businesses) in Northern Ireland. Comparisons between the groups are made and findings suggest that family businesses practice HRM differently than their non‐family counterparts. Implications for the training and development of these two groups question whether family businesses need to be treated as a “special case”.

This article reflects on the significance of family centres in the UK as a mirror of new possibilities for child welfare in the years following the Children Act 1989. The Act empowered local authorities in England and Wales to provide family centres as part of ‘family support practice’. The article reveals a rich vein of family‐centred, centre‐based activity internationally and shows practice combining intervention from the sophisticated to the very informal. The authors focus on so‐called ‘integrated centres’ as complex systems of care with wide implications for practice and outcome evaluation in an ‘evidence‐based’ context.

This paper aims to establish to what extent family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices are positively related to work–family balance and to identify the role played by job satisfaction and working hours as mediators of this relationship

We use data for a representative sample of almost 17,000 employees of dual-earner couples from European countries. To test the mediation mechanism implied by our hypotheses, we follow the procedure outlined in Baron and Kenny (1986). Given the nature of the dependent variables, ordered probit and regression models were estimated in the analysis.

The results show that, in general, family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices increase work–family balance and that these positive relationships are partially mediated by job satisfaction and working hours. While both family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices increase job satisfaction, only the first increase working hours. Moreover, job satisfaction increases work–family balance, while working hours reduces it. The net effect of these opposing forces on work–family balance is positive.

The use of secondary data posits some constraints, such as the type of measures and the failure to control for a higher number of family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices. Additionally, the non-longitudinal nature of the data set implies that some relationships cannot be considered causal in the intended direction.

Managers should implement family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices, as, in general, they increase work–family balance. A significant portion of this positive effect is channeled through job satisfaction and working hours.

The paper contributes to understanding the relationship between different subsets of human-resources management practices and work–family balance, proposing a model that aims to disentangle the mediating mechanisms through which this relationship occurs.

By investigating the use of formal compensation practices in family small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the purpose of this paper is to provide important new insights in these issues for academics, as well as family business practitioners, prospective applicants and financiers of family businesses. Moreover, this study includes a contingency that allows to explore heterogeneity across family businesses in their use of formal compensation practices: the CEO type.

A survey of 124 small- and medium-sized Belgian family businesses to explore the use of formal compensation practices is analyzed by the author.

The results support the hypothesis that family firms with a family CEO adopt significantly less formal compensation practices than their counterparts that are led by a non-family CEO.

Generalizing the findings of this study must be taken with care, as the findings are based on a cross-sectional sample of family SMEs in one country, Belgium. Future research can build on these findings with studies on larger samples in other countries.

This study may be interesting for family business practitioners and consultants, as it provides insight in the actual use of formal compensation practices that are recommended as a best practice in numerous practitioner handbooks. Also, the results of this study might be important for prospective applicants and financiers, since the compensation system is an important communication device to signal legitimacy to external stakeholders.

Compensation issues are among the main challenges SMEs, especially family firms, face. Despite the clear importance of this matter, academic interest has been rather limited. This paper therefore displays sound descriptive survey results and empirically investigates the determinants of the use of formal compensation practices in Belgian family SMEs by distinguishing between different types of family businesses.

With strategy-as-practice theory the authors explore successful business-owning families hand-over of roles to the next generation. The authors argue for the usefulness of strategy-as-practice theory in exploring the complexity and plurality of best practices in intergenerational hand-over. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A cross-cultural in-depth case study with best practice cases from China, Germany, Sweden, England, Tanzania, Israel and the USA, based on in-depth interviews of family members and non-family employees.

The authors identified three different succession patterns: a “monolithic practice,” a distributed leadership hand-over, and active ownership with a non-family managing director/CEO. Two other types of hand-over practices were categorized as incubator patterns that formed a part of, or replaced, what we traditionally see as a hand-over of roles. Families would switch between these practices.

Surprisingly, a monolithic succession practice (a one-company-one-leadership role) was rarely used. Quantitative and qualitative research should consider, as should advisors to family owners and family businesses, the plurality of succession practices. Education should explore a variation of succession and how the dynamic of gender influences the process.

Giving practitioners, such as research and practitioner, an overview of strategic options so as to explore these in a client or research case.

Adding the notions that the family is an incubator for new entrepreneurship makes it possible to show how not only sector or public policy generate new ventures. That family as source of entrepreneurship has been well established in the field but it mainstream policy thinking the family is not seen as such a source.

The paper offers an integrative model of the complexity of hand-over practices of ownership and leadership roles. It shows how these practices are fundamental for understanding how a family’s ownership and their leadership of businesses and new entrepreneurship develops.

This paper aims to examine how Mulino Bianco, an iconic Italian bakery brand, has reshaped the symbolic and material aspects of breakfast in Italy, transforming a declining practice into a common family occasion.

A socio-historical analysis of the iconisation process has been undertaken with a framework for investigating the symbolic, material and practice-based aspects of the brand and their changes over time. Archival marketing material, advertising campaigns and interviews with brand managers constitute the main data for analysis.

Three crucial moments have been identified in which the brand articulates its relationship with the practice of breakfast. During the launch of the brand, the articulation was mainly instigated via the myths of tamed nature and rural past and the material aspect of the products reinforced such an articulation. In the second moment, the articulation was established with the brand’s materiality, emphasised through the use of promotional items targeting mothers and children. In the last phase, a cementification of the articulation was achieved mainly via the symbolic aspect of the brand – communicating Mulino Bianco as emblematic of a new family life in which the “Italian breakfast” was central.

Theoretically, this paper advances the understanding of the pervasive influence of brands in family life, showing how they do not simply reshape existing family food practices, rather they can re-create new ones, investing them with symbolic meanings, anchoring them with novel materiality and equipping consumers with new understandings and competences.