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This explorative research paper illuminates the governance systems in Spanish family businesses, and evaluates the extent to which they pursue good governance practise both in the business and family areas. Empirical evidence is drawn from a database of 112 sizeable Spanish firms, and the results show the absolute dominance of the leading family in the ownership, control and management of sample firms. Approximately half of the members of the board tend to be insiders and more than two‐thirds are family members. It emerges that generational firms (with third generation and beyond owner‐managers) exhibit greater similarity in their governance structures to first generation firms than second generation ones; this might be due to the so‐called “pruning” which is used as a survival mechanism. Overall, it emerges that family firms have a very low degree of board regulation by formal rules and family governance systems are hardly developed.

Family governance mechanisms serve to govern and strengthen relations between the family and the business, as well as the relationships between the members of the business family itself. However, despite agreement on the importance of adopting family governance structures, explicit research on the determinants of family governance mechanisms is currently missing. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to uncover the determinants of family meetings. In order to do so, the social systems theory is used to unravel several determining factors of this crucial form of family governance mechanisms in private family firms.

The authors perform a qualitative study by conducting semi-structured interviews in eight Belgian private family firms in order to discover the antecedents of the implementation of family meetings. The authors use a pattern-matching technique as an analytical strategy.

The findings of the study highlight the importance of “soft,” relational, qualitative issues as antecedents of family meetings as opposed to previous research on family governance, which predominantly focused on “hard,” quantitative measures (e.g. family ownership). The findings of the study also provide novel insights into the origins of the family component (i.e. family meetings) of family business governance.

While the current literature has only focused on describing the different types of family governance and their positive consequences for the family firm, the authors take a step back to explain why family meetings, as a form of family governance, are adopted in the first place. Second, the authors demonstrate the instrumentality of the social systems theory in understanding the family's needs that necessitate the implementation of family governance mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the family protocol as a governance policy tool that can help ameliorate intra-family conflict and enhance the probabilities of survivability of the family business.

Using equity theory and organizational justice as theoretical frameworks, the authors explain how and why the development of a protocol can help the family firm and their survivability. The authors combine academic and practitioner knowledge to present a process model for creating family protocols.

Based on four important considerations (i.e. process view, deep knowledge about the family business, dynamic environment, and the need for change and adaptation) the authors develop a process model for the development of family tailored protocols.

This paper integrates the work of practitioners and academics to help understand what is a family protocol, why and how the protocol affects the family and business relationships and presents a procedural model for the development of a family protocol that can help govern the relationship between the family and the business.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize what is known about corporate governance in family firms from Ibero-American countries based on published research.

The authors conducted a literature search to identify the articles that have been published about the corporate governance of family firms in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal between 1980 and 2014. The authors found 38 articles that provide the sample for this review.

The results indicate that research on governance in Ibero-American family firms has focussed on understanding structures and processes related to the business and ownership systems. However, generalization of results across the region is difficult because of the lack of systematic approach of studies and the focus on a small number of countries.

There are at least two limitations of this work: the small sample of projects identified for the review and the lack of systematic approach to research. Both of these may be due to the importance given to publishing the university context in this part of the world. As the culture of knowledge changes, the authors expect that research in this area will grow.

Although previous research indicates that cultural characteristics affect governance system choices and understanding of family firms, not many studies explore the importance of culture in governance choices of family firms. This paper provides a baseline of the understanding of governance in Ibero-American family firms, and identifies important area for future research.

La meta de este proyecto era resumir lo que sabemos acerca del gobierno corporativo en empresas familiares en países iberoamericanos.

Se realizó una búsqueda en la literatura para identificar artículos que se hubiesen publicado en el área de gobierno corporativo sobre empresas familiares en Latinoamérica, Portugal y España entre 1980 y el 2014. Se encontraron 38 artículos que representan la muestra en este resumen de la literatura.

Los resultados de esta investigación sugieren que la investigación sobre gobierno corporativo en empresas familiares iberoamericanas se ha centrado en entender las estructuras y los procesos relacionados a los sistemas de la empresa y la propiedad. Sin embargo, la generalización de estos resultados a través de toda la región es difícil porque falta de investigaciones sistemáticas sobre temas similares y por la concentración de estudios en países específicos.

Este trabajo tiene por lo menos dos limitaciones: el tamaño de la muestra y la falta de estudios sistemáticos en investigaciones de esta área. Estas dos limitaciones pueden están relacionadas con la importancia que se le da a la publicación de investigaciones en esta región del mundo. A medida que la cultura del conocimiento en esta región cambie, se notara la proliferación de más estudios en el área de gobierno corporativo en empresas familiares iberoamericanas.

A pesar que investigaciones previas indican que las características culturales afectan las decisiones sobre sistemas de gobierno corporativo y como entendemos las empresas familiares, no hay mucha investigación acerca de la importancia de la cultura en las decisiones de gobierno en empresas familiares. Este trabajo representa una base para entender el gobierno corporativo en empresas familiares iberoamericanas y para identificar áreas de énfasis en investigaciones futuras.

This review assesses state of knowledge by critically comparing empirical literature on relationships between corporate governance and performance with regards to listed and unlisted family business.

The study applies a systematic review approach to assess 159 corporate governance and performance studies on family business published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2016.

Results from the review demonstrate heterogeneity in definition of family business, limited study of indicators of ownership and board dimensions of corporate governance in unlisted family businesses and over concentration on financial measures by listed family business studies. Possible solution was offered for potential research gaps.

This is the first review that comprehensively compares studies in listed and unlisted family business from the perspectives of corporate governance. Findings from this review may contribute to promoting research in corporate governance in the context of listed and unlisted family businesses.

Family business sustainability is a critical issue. This study considers if adopting a strategic entrepreneurship orientation can support the sustainability of a family business.

A qualitative approach is used, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve family business owners. Data collected during the interviews provides insights into understanding, practices, motivations, behaviours and attitudes relating to sustainability.

Although awareness of sustainability processes and procedures is found to be low, sustainability is important to the family business. However, sustainability is not managed or implemented systematically.

The paper presents a new model to describe the sustainability practices of family businesses. Adoption of strategic entrepreneurship is advocated as mechanism for improving sustainability. Practical and policy implications are suggested to enhance the effectiveness of sustainability initiatives in family business settings.

This paper aims to examine the impact of female board directorship on the extent of earnings management.

The research hypotheses have been tested using both univariate and multivariate analyzes based on a sample of 198 firm-year observations from closely-held family firms listed on the SBF 120 over the period 2010–2018.

The empirical results first indicate that female board participation reduces the level of earnings management. When looking at women positions in the companies’ boardrooms, the authors reveal that the negative linkage between female board directorship and earnings management remains constant for independent female directors while the opposite holds for their family-affiliated counterparts. Further, the gender quota reform is shown to mitigate the adverse relationship between gender-diverse corporate boards and the extent of earnings management. These results seem sound, as they hold unchanged for the several measures of, both, boardroom gender diversity and earnings management used in the empirical study. In a supplementary analysis, the authors provide evidence that the association between the presence of women directors on the companies’ boards and earnings management depends, in a different way, on the size of the audit firm in a joint auditing context.

The country and the period considered in this paper are noteworthy characteristics that enhance the value of this research. The present study is relevant because it examines the relationship between female boardroom participation and earnings management using a homogeneous sample of family-owned and -managed companies within which shareholders and board members share identical motives for manipulating earnings in one of the leading countries in the world with regard to family ownership dominance (i.e. France). Moreover, this paper is considered to be very timely, as it explores, contrarily to previous related studies, the years following the implementation of a mandatory gender quota reform in one of the less available countries, to date, that have amended a gender quota law. To the knowledge, besides France, there are a few markets (Norway, Belgium, Finland and Iceland) that have implemented such legislation.

The purpose of this study is to understand venture capital family businesses (VCFBs) governance of portfolio companies through the deal process.

This study applies a theory-developing approach. A model of VCFB governance is developed whose key aspects are illuminated by four examples (cases) of VCFBs.

Recent research suggests that a venture capital firm's corporate deal processes can be divided into the pre-deal, deal and post-deal phases. Based on the age, size and succession dimensions, propositions for how a governance trajectory develops for VCFBs, affecting the deal process of target family firms (TFFs), are presented. These propositions highlight how the family owners' actions and behavior are related to VCFB governance, which in turn, influences the three phases involved in making an investment.

The propositions suggest how personal and administrative VCFBs' governance of the deal process of portfolio companies is significantly affected by centrifugal and centripetal forces that drive the respective types of governance where third-generation family owners appear as changers of governance approach.

Inclusion and participation have become key values steering the policies of many governments. Hence, partnerships are now considered increasingly prominent vehicles for stakeholder synergy, added value, collaborative advantage and building local capacities to address health and social concerns. However, generally leadership across organisational boundaries has received little attention, and particularly partnership leadership represents a central challenge in any collective undertaking.As an example, this paper starts by shedding light on the meaning of partnership. It then poses several questions in order to navigate the partnership‐leadership mantra. The paper examines the skills of leaders in five South African community partnerships as reported from the perspectives of each partnership and each participating stakeholder group. It describes the uniqueness of how each partnership views its leaders and the distinctiveness of how each stakeholder appraises its leadership. It highlights diffuse and shared leadership in collaborative settings, and it encourages the nurturing of emergent leaders. It concludes that one size of leadership does not fit all partnerships.

The present study aims to determine the relationship between functional constipation and lifestyle patterns, eating habits and nutritional status in young adults.

This study was conducted in 825 young adults between the age of 20 and 24 years in Ankara. Constipation was evaluated via self-reports and ROMA III criteria. Food and beverage consumption frequency and fluid intake were surveyed, and anthropometric measurements (weight and height) were evaluated. Physical activity was assessed using the brief physical activity assessment tool.

Participants reported themselves as constipated, not constipated and sometimes constipated in 7.8, 39.6 and 53.6 per cent of cases, respectively. These rates differed from those obtained using the ROMA III criteria: constipated 51.3 per cent and not constipated 48.7 per cent. Constipation rates were higher in females (54.4 per cent) than males (44.8 per cent) (p < 0.05). No association was found between daily water, total fluid and fiber intake and constipation (p > 0.05). However, water from foods have lowering effects on constipation (p < 0.05). Increased physical activity seems to have no effect on constipation. According to food frequency records, participants who consumed more whole grains, rice/pasta and vegetables had lower rates of constipation. Conversely, higher consumption of tea was associated with higher constipation rates (p < 0.05).

Young adults should be encouraged to consume foods rich in water such as fruits and vegetables against constipation, fiber-rich foods and fluids to meet the recommendations for healthy eating. Only a few studies have assessed the relationships between lifestyle, fluid and nutritional status and body mass index.