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The purpose of this paper is to provide a meaningful, integrated, and re‐interpreted framework of Chandler's ideas regarding corporation's growth, offering an understandable conceptualization of how these insights are applicable to explain family firm's transitional stages – even when, in 1977, Chandler was not aware of it.

Grounding ideas on Chandler's insights regarding corporate firm's growth, and drawing on Gersick et al. family ownership evolutionary model, this paper develops an integrated framework of family‐controlled corporation's growth which allows family business researchers to reconcile with Chandler's perspectives, recognizing that his ideas contributed a lot to the family business literature.

Chandler's ideas regarding family firm's management are based on a narrow definition (and perspective) of family firm ownership. When allowing not only family‐owned firms, but also family‐controlled ones in his capitalism classification, his developmental stages make perfect sense when applied to family enterprises.

This paper intends to reinterpret Chandler's views on family firms, stating that the processes described for corporations are also applicable for family enterprises – when their definition becomes broader (including not only family‐owned, but also family‐controlled firms). The latter, bridges the gap between Chandler's envisioned historical evolution of corporations, and the development, professionalization and survival of family firms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the identity work undertaken by female next generation to navigate (in)visibility in family businesses with male successors. To enhance understanding of gendered identity work in family businesses, the authors offer important insights into how female next generation use (in)visibility to establish legitimacy and exercise power and humility in partnership with male next generation in their family business.

This empirical qualitative paper draws upon in-depth interviews with 14 next generation female leaders.

This study offers a model to show how female next generation establish their legitimacy amongst male next generation in power via a careful balancing act between vying for visibility (trouble) and forgoing visibility (exclusion). These female next generation gained acceptance by endorsing their own leadership identity and exercising humility in partnership or by endorsing their brother's leadership identity and exercising power in partnership.

This study highlights the need for the incumbent generation to prepare successors, regardless of gender, via equal opportunities for business exposure and leadership preparation. This study also shows that vocalizing female-centric issues and highlighting hidden power imbalances should be led by the entire management team and not simply delegated to a “family woman” in the management team to spearhead.

This study advances understanding of gender dynamics and identity in the family business literature by identifying specific strategies utilized by female next generation to navigate (in)visibility in family businesses with male successors.

Effective collaboration with families when a child has chronic illness or disability involves the participation of all family members. Through a review of recent literature, this chapter provides a snapshot into the unique experiences and perspectives of fathers and siblings, exploring roles, and responsibilities often assumed by each, such as protector, advocate, teacher, and caretaker. Professionals are invited to build greater awareness of the unique insights fathers and siblings can contribute to program planning. Strategies to build partnerships that benefit all family members are suggested.

Family farms, in which business and family life are intricately interwoven, offer an interesting context for better understanding the interdependence between the family and business system. Many family farms struggle to survive, and the succession process is a key period in which the low returns on investment become evident but also the emotional attachment of the family to the farm and the willingness to transfer the business to the next generation. We take the perspective of non-succeeding siblings since they are crucial for a successful succession but their role and position in this process is far from clear. This study will help to increase our knowledge of how fairness is perceived by non-successors and of the impact of perceived (in)justice on the family business system.

To analyze the effect on sibling relationships of an unequal outcome of the succession process, we choose the family farm context. We used interview data from multiple family members from several family farms in the Netherlands in different stages of succession. We utilized a framework based on justice theory to analyze perceptions of fairness among non-succeeding siblings. The central research question for this study is as follows: How do non-succeeding siblings perceive justice with regard to family firm succession?

The acceptance of the outcomes of the succession process by non-succeeding siblings is influenced by their perception of the fairness of the process itself and decisions made by the incumbent and successor with regard to these outcomes. It seems that stakeholders who occupy multiple roles with conflicting justice perspectives handle these contradictions with the help of an overarching goal—in this study, preserving the continuity of the family farm—and by prioritizing and adjusting the justice perspectives accordingly. The findings further show that both distributive justice and procedural justice are important and interact with each other.

Our study contributes to the literature by applying the theoretical framework of distributive and procedural justice to the context of family farm succession. This helps us to understand the position of non-succeeding siblings and their role and position in the succession process, which is important because sibling relationships have a significant impact on family harmony, with potential consequences for the business as well.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the development and implementation of shared leadership in multi‐generational family firms. Shared leadership or family top management teams involve multiple family members in the top management and ownership of family firms.

A qualitative case study approach was employed, using in‐depth interviews of the top managers of four family businesses. Each case was analyzed separately, and emergent themes found in each case; and then generalizations were made across the four cases in the cross‐case analysis.

Eight factors or conditions were examined that affect shared leadership in multi‐generational family firms according to the respondents – long‐term orientation, close communication and shared understanding, resistance to change, succession planning, failure to release control, reporting relationship confusion, increased decision time, and higher decision quality. The result of this study is the production of eight propositions to build theory concerning shared leadership, which is an under‐researched area for family business studies.

This paper is rich in qualitative detail, but with all such case study research, its limitations regarding sample size are recognized.

This paper views shared leadership as a growing phenomenon that incumbent family business leaders should consider as a viable alternative to primogeniture or the choice of a single successor.

The study described in this paper is groundbreaking in that it examines shared leadership or the development and implementation of top management teams in family firms in depth and detail. The paper contributes a balanced view of the implementation of shared leadership in family firms, exploring both the positive and negative aspects.

The succession process represents one of the most critical events in the family business lifecycle. The purpose of this paper is to explore this process while focussing first on the drivers behind the choice of successor and, second, on the impact of this choice on the entrepreneurial behavior of the siblings.

The qualitative approach was used in which multiple case analyses were performed. A total of 12 cases were purposively selected from the Lebanese private sector, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the successors and the founders when available. The interview data were transcribed and a coding scheme was created to generate relevant categories. Those categories were named and later re-assessed by an external researcher to ensure inter-rater reliability.

The three dimensions of social capital were found to have a profound influence on the succession decision with much focus on familial stewardship as an emerging cognitive driving force. When “familial stewardship” is shared by incumbent and sibling, it strengthens the latter’s chances of being chosen as successor. Further, a succession pathways model was introduced that depicts the siblings’ behavior following the succession decision which seems to often trigger further entrepreneurship.

This study is distinct as it introduces a new cognitive construct that helps rationalize the successor-selection decision in a Middle Eastern context. It also goes beyond the succession event to depict potential entrepreneurial behavior triggered by succession.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature concerning the negative effects of conflict among family businesses and to make practitioner focussed recommendations for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict. This paper discusses the prevalence of conflict in family firms, differentiates the types of conflict present, and recommends proven approaches to prevent and manage the conflict, with a focus on corporate governance tools. Examples of well known companies are presented.

A review was conducted of the literature concerning family business conflict and corporate governance.

Conflict is a common problem in family firms that has significant consequences for the business and the family. Research has shown effective governance may reduce and manage conflict.

This was a literature review. As such it did not perform original research.

This paper has practical implications for family business practitioners. The paper offers the negative aspects of conflict and recommends effective mechanisms such as governance tools to enable the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.

Implications exist for practitioners and policy makers in order to reduce conflict and increase the viability of family firms.

The scholarly literature has been reviewed and synthesized into distillation for family business owners.

The learning outcomes are as follows: decision-making in the areas of business plan, business strategy, financial management, profit planning and marketing, learning from outer business environment, succession planning for first-generation entrepreneur and choosing appropriate source of financing and drivers for diversification.

Immersed in sipping green tea in his capacious office lounge, the octogenarian Arjun Mehta introspected on the trials and tribulations of his journey as an entrepreneur, the voyage which started four decades ago. From 1976 to 2018, the business has now traversed three generations. Starting with Spice Mart (Sole Proprietor) to Hindware and Lament Construction (partnership firms) to Starlite Homes Pvt. Ltd. (corporate entity), Mr Mehta witnessed transformation and restructuring in organization with every new generation which characterized the evolution of family business. Handholding children to take up the reins of Spice Mart was not a calculated choice. Yet it is remarkable to study the growth in organizational structure of the regional family business. As a self-made entrepreneur, morals, ethics and value system are vital ingredients steering the organic growth story. Third-generation Mehta’s are enterprising, aspiring and visionary. With the incorporation of a corporate entity, they convinced themselves to bring inorganic growth in their business. Arjun Mehta gleamed with pride as Spice Mart partakes an organized structure which had lost prominence with the second-generation entrepreneurs. But he is equally hammered with juxtaposed thoughts. He contemplates whether the integration of retail business with real estate corroborates sustainable innovation. Will independent businesses create the brand’s footprints perpetually? Should the millennial confine business natively or should they grow internationally and become a conglomerate?

The case can be exclusively taught to masters and executive education class of students pursuing entrepreneurship and business management courses. The case will supplement understanding of theories of entrepreneurship and dimensions of family businesses in emerging economies.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this case study is to examine the impact of regional culture and family dynamics on firm survival and longevity. Secondary issues include operations management in a retail grocery, hardware, and building supply store.

The author performed in‐depth qualitative interviews with the business owners and visited on site. The tape‐recorded interviews followed a formal list of questions, but were semi‐structured in nature.

Although the store was remotely located, wise management and intelligent leadership have contributed to business success and survival into the fourth generation of family ownership.

As an exploratory qualitative case study, there are limitations concerning generalizability. Additionally, the findings here relate particularly to small family businesses.

Family firms possess a business side and a family side. In this case, success factors on the business side included merchandising skills, responsiveness to customer needs, profitable sales margins, and reinvestment in facilities. On the family side, success factors included harmonious relations among family members, the incumbent leaders’ desire for succession to occur, incumbent leaders’ financial forbearance or sacrifice, solid education of successors, mentoring of the next generation, and willing and able successors.

This case analyzed characteristics that lead to long term survival, examined the process of succession, and assessed the two‐sided nature – business side and family side – of a small family business.

This paper aims to explore and explain following a generational change, the latter generation in Chinese family firm is seen to apply different innovation strategies to thrive in a competitive environment. The Chandlerian perspective on management, marketing and manufacturing techniques (3Ms), derived from American business historian, Alfred Chandler has shown conclusively that one of a small yet established enterprises in Malaysia, London Biscuits Berhad (LBB) was able to capture a larger market by focusing on strategy and structure. This case study analytically and empirically describes the insights surrounding enterprise development among family small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia.

By using the longitudinal way to compare the development of family business through time, the historical profiles that were obtained from Malaysia’s companies commission house (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia) shows how organizational characteristic is often formulated by capitalizing tacit knowledge as a controlled input in the production process while promoting organization capabilities, as generations change. Secondly, findings from the interviews will show how the latter generation of this family firm innovates and adds value in product manufacturing by upgrading its quality, using resources and revitalizing the stages of business cycle.

Findings show that enterprise development is influenced by objective setting during generational change. As time goes by, the next generations have a tendency of minimizing risk and maintaining harmony in the family enterprise. The next generation starts to recruit and retain professional staff while contributing innovative ideas toward the enterprise development, in comparison to the founding generation. The findings also show that diversification activities (manufacturing), improvement in domestic and international networking (marketing) and professional management adoption (management) can clearly be seen in the development of LBB.

This case study traces how organizational and administrative characteristics of a firm are crucial if the enterprise is to capitalize on tacit knowledge and commercialize it through product development. It also clearly indicates that family enterprises may last several generations if the Chandlerian perspective on 3Ms is successfully transferred and practiced among family members.

The selected case study focuses on the Chandlerian concept, which is the contribution of organization capabilities that foster strategic competition. This is done by investigating a successful enterprise run by a prominent Chinese family in Malaysia, which has gone through generational change. This paper proves that strategizing a family enterprise through the Chandlerian concept of 3Ms can transform a small business into a large and successful multinational enterprise.