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Book part
Publication date: 16 February 2012

Jorun Solheim and Ragnhild Steen Jensen

The importance of family firms for the development of capitalism, both past and present, has in recent years become widely recognized. Today there is a fast increasing body of…

Abstract

The importance of family firms for the development of capitalism, both past and present, has in recent years become widely recognized. Today there is a fast increasing body of literature about forms of family business and variations in family capitalism. Despite this new interest, few of these studies have made the family itself the focus of enquiry – and how different types of family structures and cultural traditions may influence the strategies and development of the family firm. Such connections are explored by comparing and discussing two cases of family firms and their history, set in Norway and Italy, respectively. It is argued that these two cases may be seen as examples of quite different ‘modes of familism’, with different implications for the running of an economic enterprise. These differences concern, first and foremost, cultural conceptions of gender, forms of inheritance, and the role of marriage in constituting the family firm.

Details

Firms, Boards and Gender Quotas: Comparative Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-672-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 June 2009

Rosa Nelly Trevinyo‐Rodríguez

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…

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Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 2003

Daniel M. Shapiro, Eric Gedajlovic and Carolyn Erdener

Much of the extant literature on the Chinese Family Firm highlights the unique cultural heritage and social context in which they are embedded as primary determinants of their…

Abstract

Much of the extant literature on the Chinese Family Firm highlights the unique cultural heritage and social context in which they are embedded as primary determinants of their strategic behavior. In contrast, few studies have examined the strategic behavior of Chinese Family Firms from an economic perspective. In this paper, we address this gap in the literature by applying Dunning's eclectic theory of the MNE to the Chinese Family Firm. In doing so, we generate a series of testable propositions. We suggest that although the strategic behavior of Chinese Family Firms will differ significantly from those of classic Western MNEs, they are nonetheless amenable to interpretation according to Dunning's analytical constructs of ownership (O), internalization (I) and locational (L) advantages. More specifically, we find that like the classic Western MNE, the Chinese Family Firm can be understood as a viable mechanism for capitalizing on particular configurations of OLI advantages in international markets.

Details

The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1055-3185

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Article
Publication date: 3 August 2015

Bryane Michael and S.H. Goo

The purpose of this paper was to determine to what extent Hong Kong’s experience proves (or disproves) theories from corporate governance in the areas of family ownership…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to determine to what extent Hong Kong’s experience proves (or disproves) theories from corporate governance in the areas of family ownership, concentration, self-dealing in Hong, executive compensation and other issues. This paper – written in the comparative corporate governance tradition – uses data from Hong Kong to discuss wider trends and issues in the corporate governance literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use the comparative corporate governance approach – exposing a range of corporate governance theories to the light of Hong Kong data. The authors purposely avoid over-theorising – leaving the data to speak for themselves for other researchers interested in such theorising.

Findings

The authors find that Hong Kong presents corporate challenges that are unique among upper-income jurisdictions – in terms of potentially harmful (shareholder value diminishing) family relationships, shareholder concentration and self-dealing by insiders. The authors also show that excessive executive compensation, accounting and audit weaknesses do not pose the same kinds of problems they do in other countries. The authors provide numerous comments on theoretical papers throughout the presentation in this paper.

Research limitations/implications

The authors chose a relatively unused research approach that eschews theory building – instead, the authors use data from a range of sectors to build an overall picture of corporate governance in Hong Kong. The authors subsequently affirm or critique the theories of others in this paper.

Practical implications

The original analysis conducted by the authors provided 22 recommendations for revising listing rules for Hong Kong’s stock exchange. Others – particularly Asian officials – should consider Hong Kong’s experience when revising their own corporate governance listing rules and regulations.

Originality/value

This paper offers new and original insights in four directions. First, the authors use the empiricist’s method – presenting data from a wide range of corporate governance areas to comment on and critique existing studies. Second, the authors provide a system-wide view of corporate governance – showing how different parts of corporate governance rules work together using concrete data. Third, the authors provide a new study in the comparative corporate governance tradition – another brick in the wall that is “normal scientific progress”. Fourth, the authors pose tentative resolutions to highly debated questions in corporate governance for the specific time and place of Hong Kong in the early 2010s.

Details

Corporate Governance, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

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Book part
Publication date: 11 May 2007

Andrew Tylecote and Francesca Visintin

This paper is ambitious. Its central purpose is to examine how a number of developed economies, plus the largest developing economy, vary in terms of corporate governance: USA…

Abstract

This paper is ambitious. Its central purpose is to examine how a number of developed economies, plus the largest developing economy, vary in terms of corporate governance: USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Switzerland and mainland China. We understand corporate governance in a very broad sense, descriptive not prescriptive: as who controls and influences firms, and how. We are thus dealing very much with varieties of capitalism. In a sense, we shall be seeking to characterise national systems of corporate governance, but we must stress that our concern is always with the situation of the individual firm. We shall find it convenient most of the time to give one label to a country's whole economy, but this will always be an approximation, which conceals variations among that country's firms. At other points, we shall distinguish types of firm and indicate the rough proportions of each type in a particular economy.

Details

Capitalisms Compared
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-414-0

Book part
Publication date: 8 February 2016

Maxine Eichner

This paper poses the question of whether the mainstream feminist movement in the United States, in concentrating its efforts on achieving gender parity in the existing workplace…

Abstract

This paper poses the question of whether the mainstream feminist movement in the United States, in concentrating its efforts on achieving gender parity in the existing workplace, is selling women short. In it, I argue that contemporary U.S. feminism has not adequately theorized the problems with the relatively unregulated market system in the United States. That failure has contributed to a situation in which women’s participation in the labor market is mistakenly equated with liberation, and in which other far-ranging effects of the market system on women’s lives inside and outside of work – many of them negative – are overlooked. To theorize the effects of the market system on women’s lives in a more nuanced manner, I borrow from the insights of earlier Marxist and socialist feminists. I then use this more nuanced perspective to outline an agenda for feminism, which I call “market-cautious feminism,” that seeks to regulate the market to serve women’s interests.

Details

Special Issue: Feminist Legal Theory
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-782-0

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 July 2021

Julisa McCoy, Jessica Moronez, Evelyn Pruneda and Ellen Reese

Communities are critical sites for studying the politics of inequality within neoliberal capitalism. We illustrate this by providing regional case studies of the enactments and…

Abstract

Communities are critical sites for studying the politics of inequality within neoliberal capitalism. We illustrate this by providing regional case studies of the enactments and outcomes of three types of neoliberal policies in the United States: (1) cutbacks in family planning policies, (2) municipal underbounding and failures to provide public infrastructure within unincorporated communities, and (3) “tough on crime” policies leading to mass incarceration. Building on insights from intersectional feminist theory and using evidence from in-depth interviews from three Southwestern communities, we argue that neoliberal capitalism is compounding intersecting inequalities affecting women of color. In particular, we claim that neoliberal policies at the local and state levels are compromising the reproductive autonomy and public health of women of color and creating new challenges for their family care work.

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1986

Beverly H. Burris

Both work institutions and the family, capitalism and patriarchy must change if work and family are to be capable of integration by both men and women. Obviously needed changes…

Abstract

Both work institutions and the family, capitalism and patriarchy must change if work and family are to be capable of integration by both men and women. Obviously needed changes are: greater work scheduling flexibility, more available part‐time work for men and women, more available and affordable child care, more generous maternity and paternity leave. In order for work to be truly compatible with parenting it needs to be less alienated, and parenting needs to be less individualistically structured and isolating. Both realms need to be more creative, egalitarian and social. With the majority of wives and mothers working outside the home the previous “myth of separated worlds” has become increasingly untenable, as women are asked to reconcile work and family. The literature is examined, emphasising its limitations in its failure to disaggregate working mothers according to occupation and its one‐sided focus on the impact of work relationships on family life. Sociological theories about family and work are examined. The nature of the family work nexus for non‐professional and professional women is explored. The professional/non‐professional comparison is analysed as well as the changing family/work nexus and its impact on men and women.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 10 May 2019

Rochelle Wimalasinghe and Tharusha N. Gooneratne

The purpose of this paper is to explore the co-existence of multiple logics, resulting complexities and their implications on control practices within a traditional industry…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the co-existence of multiple logics, resulting complexities and their implications on control practices within a traditional industry (southern cinnamon) in Sri Lanka.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is premised upon the qualitative methodology and case study approach, while the theoretical backing is provided by the institutional logics perspective.

Findings

The findings reveal that controls are exercised in the southern cinnamon industry to manage competing facets stemming from the co-existence of multiple logics, such as family logic, commercial logic and state logic. Amid the recurring complexity caused by competing logics, the industry remains in a state of control through mediators, such as the exporter trade union (the Spice Council), which although predominantly guided by commercial logic, acts in easing-off tensions between competing logics, while serving the interest of multiple actors. Controls in southern cinnamon nevertheless take a peculiar form, giving way to the continuation of traditional rudimentary practices, which essentially represent the interests of ground level actors.

Originality/value

Moving beyond corporate settings, which are the typical focus of mainstream studies, this paper adds to the existing body of knowledge on control practices in traditional industries, where informal and localized controls prevail. Theoretically, it expands the use of the institutional logics perspective, recognizing multiple logics, tensions and complexities in management control research. In doing so, the authors probe into informal control mechanisms in traditional industries to understand the controls and complexities in practice. Practically, the paper portrays beliefs, issues and incidents in the field (of the southern cinnamon industry in Sri Lanka), which explains why the field operates as it does, thereby offering insights to actors in the field, ranging from practitioners to policymakers.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 1996

Cliff Cheng

The Chinese family business (CFB) is one of the most enduring and prolific organizational forms in human history. The CFB is an alternative to a modernistic organization and has…

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Abstract

The Chinese family business (CFB) is one of the most enduring and prolific organizational forms in human history. The CFB is an alternative to a modernistic organization and has been understudied in the post‐modern organizational theory literature. Compares a pre‐modern CFB transplanted to the USA with the modernistic Toyota model of greenfield start‐ups.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

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1 – 10 of over 12000