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Book part
Publication date: 8 July 2010

Alex Stewart and Michael A. Hitt

Are the social domains of kinship and business on balance complementary or contradictory? Do ventures that invest heavily in both – conventionally referred to as “family firms” …

Abstract

Are the social domains of kinship and business on balance complementary or contradictory? Do ventures that invest heavily in both – conventionally referred to as “family firms” – bear a net gain or net loss? We are scarcely the first to raise these questions. How then will we try to contribute to an answer? We try this in five ways, all of them based on previous literature. First, we develop the dichotomy of kinship and business by taking seriously the metaphor of yin and yang, merging it with the anthropological constructs of structural domains such as “domestic” and “public.” This metaphor proves to shed light on the relevant literature. Second, we provide a qualitative survey of the costs and benefits of kinship in business. Third, we summarize the empirical work that addresses the performance outcomes from family involvement. Fourth, we consider the practitioner implications of these studies. Finally, we ask if scholars are as yet in a position to answer these questions.

Details

Entrepreneurship and Family Business
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-097-2

Book part
Publication date: 12 January 2021

Dalal Alrubaishi, Helen Haugh, Paul Robson, Rachel Doern and William J. Wales

This study investigates the impact of socioemotional wealth (SEW) on family firm entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in Saudi Arabia, and the moderating effect of generational…

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of socioemotional wealth (SEW) on family firm entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in Saudi Arabia, and the moderating effect of generational involvement on this relationship. Our data set comprises 241 privately, wholly owned family firms. We examine EO as a strategic orientation expressed in terms of both firm behavior and how managers approach risk-taking attitudinally. Our study finds that SEW is positively related to firms’ entrepreneurial behavior, but not managerial attitudes toward risk-taking. However, the positive effects of SEW on firms’ entrepreneurial behavior diminish as the number of generations involved in the family business increases. The broader implications for enabling entrepreneurship within Arab transforming economies adhering to strong cultural tribalistic norms are discussed.

Details

Entrepreneurial Orientation: Epistemological, Theoretical, and Empirical Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-572-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 August 2021

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.

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2023

Stefan Prigge and Katharina J. Mengers

This chapter presents the current research status of family constitutions from an economics perspective. It locates the family constitution as part of the family and business…

Abstract

This chapter presents the current research status of family constitutions from an economics perspective. It locates the family constitution as part of the family and business governance structure of a family firm and the owner family. The typical structure and content of a family constitution are introduced. The chapter focuses on the status of research about family constitutions and provides a structured map for future research. With regard to extant research, it must be stated that the stock of literature is small. The contributions to literature are categorized in surveys; conceptual contributions; survey data; small sample, qualitative, empirical studies; and big sample, quantitative, empirical studies. The latter group includes three studies with a separate family constitution variable. This small number symbolizes that the family constitution still is an under-researched area. Therefore, family constitution research is far away from being able to answer central questions of advice-seeking owner families like, for example, whether a family constitution affects family performance, firm performance, or both; or whether the development process of a family constitutions disposes of an effect on family or firm performance separately from the hypothesized effect of the family constitution document.

Book part
Publication date: 28 November 2022

Afusat Jaiyeola, Yong Wang and Samia Mahmood

There exists a shortage of studies that establish linkages between entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing in family businesses. In line with this research stream, the…

Abstract

There exists a shortage of studies that establish linkages between entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing in family businesses. In line with this research stream, the purpose of this chapter is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing of family businesses. Specifically, the study investigates how the five entrepreneurial orientation dimensions – risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy influence family business debt financing. By adopting a qualitative research methodology and based on empirical evidence gathered through a 10-case study design involving face-to-face interviews with owners of family businesses in Nigeria, the study examines the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on debt financing. The results suggest that the entrepreneurial orientation of family businesses seems to play a pivotal role in influencing debt financing. If a firm is entrepreneurial-oriented, it is reasonable to expect that it will focus attention on new and emerging opportunities for obtaining debt financing. The study advances research on entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing in family businesses. It develops an empirically theoretical framework at the intersection of the family business and entrepreneurial orientation research, filling a gap in the literature. Future research could substantiate the findings of this study on a broader empirical base, using quantitative methods. This study offers a new perspective to the study of entrepreneurial orientation and, at the same time, contributes with findings from research on entrepreneurial orientation to the study of debt financing in family businesses.

Book part
Publication date: 19 October 2020

Olof Brunninge, Markus Plate and Marcela Ramirez-Pasillas

Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the family.

Design/Methodology/Approach – We employ a revelatory case study to investigate the complexity of family business (corporate) social responsibility. The main case, a German shoe retailer, is supplemented by other case illustrations that provide additional insights into FBSR.

Findings – To fully understand social responsibility in a family firm context, we need to include social initiatives that go beyond the actual family business as a unit. This FBSR connects family members outside and inside the business and across generations. As FBSR is formed through individual and family-level values, its character is idiosyncratic and contrasts the often standardized approaches in widely held firms.

Practical Implication – Family businesses need to go beyond the business as such when considering their engagement in social responsibility. Family ownership implies that all social initiatives conducted by family members, regardless if they are involved in the firm or not, are connected. This includes a shared responsibility for what family members do at present and have done in the past.

Book part
Publication date: 30 November 2020

Edem M. Azila-Gbettor, Robert J. Blomme, Ad Kil and Ben Q. Honyenuga

The study examines organization citizenship behavior (OCB) as a mediating variable between instrumental work values (IWVs) and organizational performance; and group differences…

Abstract

The study examines organization citizenship behavior (OCB) as a mediating variable between instrumental work values (IWVs) and organizational performance; and group differences between family manager and nonfamily manager for integrated models in family hotels. Data were collected from 189 hotels (n = 921) ranging from budget to three-star family hotels in Ghana using questionnaire administered conveniently. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Work value positively influences OCB and organizational performance of family hotels. OCB mediates the relationship between work values and organizational performance. The study also found significant support for group differences between family and nonfamily firms for IWVs and mediating effect of OCB on the relationship between IWVs and performance.

Book part
Publication date: 7 July 2015

Olof Brunninge and Anders Melander

In this chapter, we explore the impact of socioemotional and financial wealth on the resource management of family firms. We use MoDo, a Swedish pulp and paper firm, covering…

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the impact of socioemotional and financial wealth on the resource management of family firms. We use MoDo, a Swedish pulp and paper firm, covering three generations of owner-managers from 1873 to 1991, to grasp the shifting emphases on socioemotional and financial wealth in the management of the company. Identifying four strategic issues of decisive importance for the development of MoDo, we analyze the organizational values that guided the management of these issues. We propose that financial and socioemotional wealth stand for two different rationalities that infuse organizational values. The MoDo case illustrates how these rationalities go hand in hand for extended periods of time, safeguarding both financial success and socioemotional endowments. However, in a situation where the rationalities are no longer in line with the development of the industry context, the conflict arising between the two rationalities may have fatal consequences for the firm in question.

Details

New Ways of Studying Emotions in Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-220-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 February 2022

Hikari Akizawa

A typical Japanese family firm tends to be small and resilient over generations. Some of the activities and practices of such firms provide valuable information about the…

Abstract

A typical Japanese family firm tends to be small and resilient over generations. Some of the activities and practices of such firms provide valuable information about the persistence of family businesses. Through the narratives of a couple who run a 100-year-old family firm in Japan, this chapter explicates how and why they succeeded in the bold transformation of their business during times of adversity.

The couple proposed two different stories about the four business model innovations throughout the firm’s history. Even though this innovation process can be explained as “entrepreneurship,” it is more deeply understood by focusing on the social aspects of “family.” The couple innovated their business using householding practices that supported their kin, employees, and community, with an ideal of perpetuity rather than of the maximization of profit. These practices gave meaning to the firm’s existence and its need to survive.

The household is a competing term for family, being broadly defined by the dimensions of its forms, activities, and values. This study focuses on the householding perspective, showing how and why householding practices drive business model innovations in Japanese settings. To conclude, the distinctive inclusiveness of householding, in terms of membership and leadership, is also explored.

Details

The Power of Inclusion in Family Business
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-579-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2020

Germán Scalzo and Héctor X. Ramírez-Pérez

This chapter is an exploratory study of business ethics as it relates to family firms; it primarily aims to explore virtue ethics as an alternative proposal for the ethical…

Abstract

This chapter is an exploratory study of business ethics as it relates to family firms; it primarily aims to explore virtue ethics as an alternative proposal for the ethical concerns that family firms face in their management, thus overcoming the limitations of relevant business ethics approaches and integrating them into an overarching paradigm. Ethics can be classified into three main streams: (1) deontology, (2) utilitarianism, and (3) virtue ethics. The former two approaches have been widely used in the realm of business and family firms for many years and they tend to instrumentalize ethics for business purposes. Yet, they are mostly powerless to explain and promote the ethical concerns surrounding the family firm’s culture. Virtue ethics regained philosophical interest in the second half of the twentieth century, shifting the focus of morality from “the right thing to do” to the “best way to live.” By bringing together two consolidated research fields, family firms and virtue ethics, this chapter contributes a rich perspective to current research in both fields and opens up new ways of answering many of the cultural questions that family firms bring to the table.

Details

Strategy, Power and CSR: Practices and Challenges in Organizational Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-973-6

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000