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The purpose of this paper is to grasp the effect of familiness on capital structure decisions in family firms, as family firm identity may be an important source of competitive advantage due to its potential to moderate relationships with stakeholders such as banks.

The paper uses panel data from 2010 to 2014, which combine financial and structural data on 691 large private German companies. The econometric approach is a random-effect and tobit panel regression using different dependent variables relating to debt.

The study reveals that family firms have significantly higher overall and long-term debt levels compared to their non-family counterparts. Contrary to the extant literature, tangibility is not significantly related to debt in the context of family firms and the hypothesized higher usage of trade credits by family-owned businesses could not be supported.

Future research can improve the measurement of familiness by changing from a dichotomous to a continuous variable, acknowledging that family businesses are not homogenous. This would also enable a different econometric approach.

A practical implication for family firms is to actively capitalize on their identity and thus, improving the way they present themselves towards different groups of stakeholders to mitigate information asymmetries and enhance trust.

The paper investigates large private family-owned businesses, applies multiple dependent variables, and uses a family firm specific theoretical framework, namely familiness, to explain the family’s influence on the business.

This paper aims to develop a computational approach to analyze the mechanical behavior, perfusion bioreactor test and degradation of the designed scaffolds. Five types of pore architecture scaffolds have been made using a computer-aided designed tool and fabricated through fused deposition modeling.

Compressive structural analysis has been performed using the finite element method to forecast the mechanical performance of the scaffolds. Also, the experimental study was done to validate the simulation outcomes. A computational fluid dynamic analysis was performed to ascertain the fluid pressure distribution, velocity profile, wall shear stress, strain rate and permeability of scaffolds. The interconnected pore architecture of the scaffolds plays a crucial role in enhancing the mechanical properties and fluid flow characteristics.

The scaffolds with continuous vertical support columns resulted in better strength because they provide better ways to transfer the load. The pore architecture of the scaffold plays a significant role in the path of fluid flow. Scaffolds with regular interconnected pore architecture showed better accessibility of the fluid. The degradation analysis showed that the degradation rate is dependent on the architecture of the scaffolds because of different surface area to volume ratios.

The simulation results provide a straightforward prediction of the scaffold suitability in terms of mechanical strength, perfusion and degradation behavior.

This study aims to investigate the associations among different leadership styles and employees' taking charge. Applying Person–Environment (P-E) fit theory, the current study further explores employees' intrinsic motivation as an important individual factor that possibly moderates the hypothesized relationships.

In this field study, 212 supervisor–employee matched multi-source data were collected from multiple organizations located in South Korea. Data were analyzed with multiple hierarchical regression.

Empowering leadership is positively related to employees' taking charge, whereas directive leadership is negatively associated with it. Results of the current study further support that intrinsically motivated employees exhibit more taking charge when their leader shows empowering leadership but reduce their taking charge when their leader demonstrates directive leadership.

The current empirical results could not infer causality due to a cross-sectional research design.

Organizations should develop and embrace empowering leadership if the employees' self-started and change-oriented behavior, taking charge, is particularly critical to fostering organizational effectiveness.

This study extends the literature on leadership and employee proactivity by examining different leadership styles as predictors of employees' taking charge. Based on the current study results, empowering leadership could work as a facilitator and directive leadership as a barrier to employees' taking charge.

This paper aims at exploring the factors that are important for the digital development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis compared to large-sized enterprises.

Using data from a survey in Greek firms during the pandemic, econometric models are estimated to identify factors that are related to the expansion of digital marketing and e-commerce practices of SMEs and large-sized enterprises based on the technology–organization–environment framework.

The results suggest that while further investments in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure are important for the digital development of SMEs during the COVID-19 crisis, it is the innovative activities that advance the digitalization of large-sized enterprises. Also, SMEs, which implement flexible human resource (HR) practices (such as remote work) and face delays in the supply chain due to the pandemic, appear to have increased probability of expanding their digital marketing and e-commerce. On the contrary, HR practices do not seem to matter for large firms, while new regulations appear to discourage their digital development during the COVID-19 crisis.

This is the first study which empirically explores the digital reactions of SMEs compared to those of large-sized enterprises in a pandemic crisis context. It advances the limited knowledge on the potentially different responses of SMEs and large-sized enterprises to major external shocks with respect to their digital marketing and e-commerce expansion.

The purpose of this paper is to study the use of titanium as a protecting element for aluminum in alkaline conditions.

Aluminum coatings containing up to 20 weight per cent Ti6Al4V were produced using laser cladding and were investigated using light optical microscope, scanning electron microscope – energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction, together with alkaline exposure tests and potentiodynamic measurements at pH 13.5.

Cladding resulted in a heterogeneous solidification microstructure containing an aluminum matrix with supersaturated titanium (<1 weight per cent), Al₃Ti intermetallics and large partially undissolved Ti6Al4V particles. Heat treatment lowered the titanium concentration in the aluminum matrix, changed the shape of the Al₃Ti precipitates and increased the degree of dissolution of the Ti6Al4V particles. Corrosion testing showed significant localized dissolution of the aluminum matrix.

Increased titanium concentration and heat treatment gave improved alkaline corrosion properties. At pH 13.5, the Al₃Ti phases were protected, while the aluminum matrix corroded.

For alkaline corrosion-protection of aluminum in the automobile industry, titanium might be useful at pH values below 13.5 or by using other coating techniques.

This is the first study testing the use of titanium as a protective element of aluminum in stringent alkaline conditions.

This paper investigates whether board composition, a family chief executive officer (CEO) and the firm's managerial capabilities affect proactive tax management in family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The main statement is that the professionalisation of corporate government and management practices explains the difference in tax avoidance behaviour in closely held family SMEs.

Using the 2012 Spanish thin-capitalisation rule as a quasi-experiment, the authors estimate panel regressions with firm fixed effects and robust standard errors. This model represents a triple difference-in-differences combined with propensity score matching (PSM-DID).

Analysis shows that having a high proportion of non-family board members and a high endowment of managerial capabilities lead to tax liability optimisation in family SMEs. Conversely, familial boards and family SMEs with low managerial capabilities lack enough expertise to weigh the costs of tax avoidance over the benefits, resulting in a reluctance to engage in tax optimisation behaviours. Alike, results show no significant relation between CEO's family affiliation and tax management behaviour.

When implementing fiscal policies, the specific needs of family SMEs should be considered, and how these needs interact with corporate governance and managerial mechanisms. Moreover, policymakers need a deeper understanding of family SMEs in order to develop policies appropriate to their characteristics. A more comprehensive knowledge of how family firm heterogeneity affects corporate decisions, such as indebtedness and fiscal decisions, may improve public policies.

This study addresses the issue of tax behaviour in family SMEs in a particular event that implies a specific logic to weigh the pros and cons of each alternative: reducing debt or paying more taxes. This study’s conclusions are based on a model that deals with potential endogeneity problems, which avoids bias in the findings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, besides the health concerns, caused an unprecedented social and economic crisis that has particularly hit service industries hard. Due to extensive safety measures, many service employees have to work remotely to keep service businesses running. With limited literature on leadership and virtual work in the service context, this paper aims to report on leadership effectiveness regarding employees' work performance in virtual settings brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing on the input–process–outcome (IPO) framework, this research investigates the effectiveness of leadership on service employees' work performance mediated by work-related tension, autonomy, and group cohesiveness. Furthermore, this study explores moderating effects of the service provider's digital maturity. To test the derived model, the authors collected survey data from 206 service employees who, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unexpectedly had to transform to a virtual work environment. The authors analyzed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicated that it took task- and relation-oriented leadership behavior to maintain service employees' work performance in a virtual environment during crisis situations. Further, results indicated mediating effects of service employees' individual job autonomy and team cohesiveness; surprisingly, work-related tension did not impact employees' work performance. Results offered service businesses guidance on how to effectively lead in times of crisis when service employees predominantly work in virtual environments.

This is the first empirical study to show how leadership affects service employees' work performance in a virtual work environment during crisis times. Thus, the study contributes to the scarce literature on the impact of leadership in service firms that have to operate in such a setting.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether key investor information documents (KIDs) provided by suppliers/issuers help retail investors to understand the key characteristics of financial products. KIDs are fact sheets composed to describe the characteristics of financial products in a brief, standardized and straightforward manner.

In the empirical analysis, the authors evaluate different versions of KIDs and examine whether they meet minimum requirements to provide benefits for consumers.

The empirical results suggest that subjects assess KIDs of suppliers/issuers merely as moderately appropriate to grasp the key characteristics of financial products. In contrast, neutral benchmark KIDs are generally evaluated as being superior to those of suppliers/issuers, which at best meet current legal requirements.

The authors argue that a major reason for these findings is consumer policy’s assumption of omnicompetent subjects in line with the neoclassical idea of a Homo economicus. This assumption, however, is far from being both realistic and practical.

The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient method for the numerical treatment of robust optimization problems with absolute reliability constraints.

Optimization with anti-optimization based on response surface techniques; polynomial chaos for approximation of the stochastic objective function.

The number of function calls is comparable to that of the corresponding deterministic problem. Thus, the method is well suited for complex technical systems. The performance of the method is demonstrated on an optimal design problem for turbochargers.

The highlights of this paper are: algorithms for robust and deterministic problems show comparable complexity; no derivatives required; good convergence properties because of special set up of optimization problem; application in complex industrial examples.

This paper aims to address the coating and compound analysis of diamond-like carbon (DLC) on steel, to understand the frictional behavior in tribological gear systems presented in paper Part I. Here, the Ti and Zr modified DLC coating architectures are analyzed regarding their chemical, mechanical and thermophysical properties. The results represent a systematic analysis of the thermal insulating effect in tribological contact of DLC coated gears.

The approach was to evaluate the effect of the substitution of Zr through Ti at the reference coating ZrCg to TiCg and the effect on thermophysical properties. Furthermore, the influence of different carbon and hydrogen contents on the coating and compound properties was analyzed. Therefore, different discrete Ti or Zr containing DLC coatings were deposited on an industrial coating machine. Thereby the understanding of the microstructure and chemical composition of the reference coatings is increased.

Results prove comparable mechanical properties of metal modified DLC independent of differences in chemical compositions. Moreover, the compound adhesion between TiC_g/16MnCr5E was improved compared to ZrC_g/16MnCr5E. The effect of hydrogen content Ψ and carbon content x_c on the thermophysical properties is limited by Ψ = 18 at.% and x_c = 90 at.%.

The findings of the combined papers Part I and II show a high potential for industrial application of DLC on gears. Based on the results DLC coatings and gears can be tailored to each other.

Systematic analysis of DLC coatings were conducted to evaluate the effect of titanium, carbon and hydrogen on thermophysical properties.