Ecosystem for the emergence of spin-offs from the family business

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melquicedec Lozano

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the minimum conditions for the formation of an ecosystem that favours the emergence of spin-offs whose parent company is a family business. Design/methodology/approach Three family companies that have experienced processes supporting the creation of new companies led by family members were used for this exploration. Findings The findings show that it is possible to form an ecosystem with five basic components from which other factors of a different kind are derived, and that would favour the minimum conditions for new companies to emerge from the family business. Originality/value Spin-off companies have received valuable recognition in recent years. The vast majority of research on spin-offs considers those arising under the protection of a private innovation centre, a corporation, or university. This research gives more breadth to this coverage, by studying the emergence of spin-offs that rely on the family business as the parent company.

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Schmidts ◽  
Deborah Shepherd

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use social identity theory to explore factors that contribute to the development of family social capital. Effects are investigated both for the family and the business. Design/methodology/approach – A single in-depth case study focussing on the family unit was coducted within a fourth-generation family business involved in the arts retailing. Findings – The findings suggest that social identity theory is a useful lens to explore the development of family social capital. The six themes identified highlight that there is a normative and an affective dimension, leading to family members’ desire to uphold the status of the business. Evidence suggests that the normative factors may be both positively and negatively related to the development of family social capital, due to their potentially restrictive nature. Originality/value – The paper’s findings imply that social identity can contribute to understanding family dynamics. Evidence highlights various factors for family members that are not involved in the family business to uphold its status. This is attributed to the emotional significance of the business to the family’s identity. Furthermore, this paper suggests that the strong focus on norms and values, which developed gradually, may have adverse effects on the identification with the business and the willingness to uphold its status. Propositions are offered to provide guidance for future research to investigate this controversial evidence regarding the impact of value orientation on family social capital.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusto Dalmoro Costa ◽  
Aurora Carneiro Zen ◽  
Everson dos Santos Spindler

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between family succession, professionalization and internationalization in family businesses within the Brazilian context.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a multiple-case study method with three Brazilian family businesses that have at least two generations of the owning family involved in the business and an international presence of at least three years. In-depth interviews and secondary data were undertaken with family and non-family members of each case.FindingsThe authors' results show that a family business can boost its internationalization by introducing both succession planning and professionalization on international activities. As family members tend to be more risk-averse and focused on keeping the family business within the family, professionalization is a way of improving the firm's ability to expand internationally. This process tends to lead to lower performance by the firm for the first few months or the first year after the investment, but afterward, international performance tends to grow exponentially.Originality/valueOnly a few studies have been concerned on the relationship of these three dimensions. Thus, the research takes into account that professionalization and succession lead family businesses to improve their internationalization strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asma AbdulRahim Chang ◽  
Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik ◽  
Navaz Naghavi

PurposeBy taking the theory of entrepreneurial legacy as the baseline, this study explores the various aspects of succession planning in indigenous family businesses especially the role of female family members in succession and conflicts in family businesses.Design/methodology/approachThe study is qualitative in nature and adopts narrative inquiry to explore the aspects of succession planning. In doing so, the study utilizes an in-depth interviewing technique with nine participants who run their family-owned firms which are mostly in their second or third generation for analysis.FindingsThe findings are concurrent with the literature that indicates a lack of strategic succession planning although ordinary or natural succession does occur in some firms. The study also reports a lack of consideration for female members in succession, daughters in particular, for traditional family firms (FFs) in contrast to entrepreneurial FFs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has many implications for family-owned firms in Pakistan as they need to align their family business with the theory of entrepreneurial legacy and its three strategic activities in order to ensure the longevity of their business.Originality/valueExploring how succession planning takes place in family indigenous family businesses and what is the role of female family members in succession and conflicts in family businesses are original contributions of this study.


Author(s):  
William Schulze

Purpose In this commentary, the author aims to question whether the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) construct should be limited to family firms by noting that non-family owners and founders, i.e. those who yet have to involve family in their enterprise‘s operations, management or ownership, are also motivated to maximize their socioemotional wealth. Design/methodology/approach The concept of SEW has generated significant traction in the family business literature and motivated an important body of work about how SEW alters decision-making in family firms. Professors Martin and Gomez–Mejia (this issue) extend past contributions by teasing apart complex relationships among the underlying dimensions of the construct. However, the domain of that paper, as well as the SEW construct, has heretofore been limited to family firms. The author builds his commentary on the work of Martin and Gomez–Mejia (this issue) to argue that the notion that SEW shapes decision-making in the owner controlled and owner-managed non-family firms, as well as family firms. Findings The author’s overarching conclusion is that there are several dimensions in which family interests materially alter decision-making but others in which family likely plays a moderating and possibly even a suppressor role. The surprising implication is that it may not be SEW per se that distinguishes family firms from non-family firms but rather how the family dynamic alters the influence of SEW on outcomes of interest. Originality/value Acknowledging that personal and familial SEW have a common foundation allows one to sharpen the research focus and shift it from questions about how SEW might alter decision-making in family firms to questions about how the presence of family members alters the influence of SEW on decision-making in owner-controlled and owner-managed firms. This commentary explicates the argument and offers some suggestions about how this re-framing might allow for the extension of the SEW concept from the family firm to its influence on founder-managed and non-family firms.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Comino-Jurado ◽  
Sonia Sánchez-Andújar ◽  
Purificación Parrado-Martínez

PurposeThis paper examines how differences in the family involvement in a family business can influence its level of indebtedness. Assuming the influence of family is not the same for all family firms, we consider each company as a combination of the family involvement in three dimensions of the business: ownership, management and governance structure.Design/methodology/approachUsing the partial least squares technique allows us to address the heterogeneity of family firms through an integral concept of family involvement in business that jointly considers the level of family participation in the ownership, management and governance structure of each firm.FindingsOur results demonstrate that the level of family involvement in a family firm, considering the heterogeneity existing within the family business group, directly influences its level of indebtedness. In addition, we find that family involvement in ownership and governance structures individually considered are positively related to the level of indebtedness of the family business.Originality/valueOur findings prove that some indebtedness patterns, which previous literature has described as common to all Spanish family businesses, may actually be valid only for specific family firms with a particular level of family involvement. In addition, the way of measuring family business heterogeneity through our integral concept of family involvement can be replicated by other authors because of the manageability of the items, thus contributing to an increased understanding of the effects of family involvement in firms' development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-225
Author(s):  
Darshana Sedera ◽  
Sachithra Lokuge ◽  
W. Jayantha M. Perera

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate whether digital connectedness between family members, attained through social media, increases the intention to travel overseas to visit family or relatives. In the context of the education sector, this paper specifically investigates the likelihood of a family member traveling to see a family member who is currently studying in Australia, despite their regular interactions on digital social platforms.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on the perspectives of earlier conceptual papers by Chackoet al.(2012) and Solnet and Hood (2008) in an effort to identify root causes and a possible solution. The context of Singapore and the international literature are also reviewed to establish theoretical and practical gaps that need to be filled.FindingsThe study finds that both “perceived media richness” of social media and communication applications and the “perceived connectedness” gained through social media and communication applications have a positive effect on the “intention to travel to the study destination.” Of the two variables measured in the study, perceived connectedness provides the strongest influence with nearly double the path coefficient as compared to the perceived media richness. Overall, an explanation of 32 per cent in one’s intention to travel provides a substantial discovery of travel intentions.Originality/valueThe role that digital social media like Facebook plays in human connectivity is not a foregone conclusion, when one could argue that digital connectivity especially enhanced by the richness of social media has the potential to replace or minimize physical relationships. Yet, this study demonstrates that such associations between the family members are in fact augmented by social media.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria José Parada ◽  
Claudio Müller ◽  
Alberto Gimeno

Purpose This paper highlights the importance of understanding family firms in different contexts. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the characteristics and behavior of family firms in Ibero-America, and their contribution and fit to the broader field of research. Based on the five articles in this special issue, this paper attempts to give an overview of their main contributions. Design/methodology/approach This paper explains in a contextual and analytical way the contributions of five papers that focus their attention on Ibero-American family firms, by linking them to the current research in the field and finding their fit within the broader field of family business. Tackling different topics, these five papers discuss about the comparison between family vs non-family businesses, innovation in family firms, and governance in family firms Findings Findings suggest that there is a need to stimulate research in family business in Ibero-America, especially Latin America, regarding family business dynamics, the different roles of the family within the enterprise, family governance, and the role of women. With regards to innovation the cultural and economic context play an important role in how they perform innovative activities. Originality/value This paper contributes to further understanding family firms by discussing the importance of the context and by linking all five papers with the broader literature in family business. The introduction also discusses topics worth to be further researched in Ibero-America.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Jose Parada ◽  
Georges Samara ◽  
Alexandra Dawson ◽  
Eduard Bonet

Purpose Despite the great importance attributed to values in the family business, few studies have focused on their importance and on how such values influence the way family businesses behave over time. Using Aristotelian virtues as our main framework, the purpose of this paper is to understand what motivates both family members and business families to perform virtuous acts, therefore, observing the underlying beliefs at both levels of analysis that make individuals and families repeatedly behave in a way that reflects the pursuit of excellence of character. Design/methodology/approach The authors rely on a qualitative methodology, following an interpretive approach. Based on the narratives of family members from two Spanish family businesses, the authors abductively analyze how values and virtues in family businesses allow them to cope with changes that occur across generations. Findings Findings suggest that family businesses that have survived heavy crises have been able to overcome these critical moments in part due to their strong virtues – both at the individual and at the family level – where the so-called four cardinal virtues have been evident, for example, through the achievement of collective goals and adherence to a stated mission, as well as through behaviors that have been aimed at improving and benefiting the community. Practical implications Values are the basis for all businesses and their behaviors. Understanding the type of values, as well as the underlying virtues, that allow for prosperity across generations is important for business families to perpetuate those that allow the family business to thrive. Originality/value This paper contributes to the family business field by exploring a key understudied dimension that determines family business prosperity over time and across generations. It brings to the forefront values and virtues that are rarely studied in this setting despite their great importance, using narratives as a key element for value transmission as well as a research method that allows for deeper insights about specific processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-450
Author(s):  
Izabela Szymanska ◽  
Anita Blanchard ◽  
Kaleigh Kuhns

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on efforts of a large department store to increase its business advantage by boosting innovation. The first broad research question of this study investigated how the family and non-family members influence the process of organizational change aimed at greater innovativeness in a successful retail family business. The second research question was how the family enterprise handles the tension between change stemming from innovation and progress and the need for stability continuity tradition and maintenance of family control. Design/methodology/approach This study is an in-depth inductive analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) of an important and unique case (Yin, 1994). Findings The results of the study indicate that the push toward innovation was initiated by family members and that it was focused largely on creating structural support for the innovation activity keeping this activity tightly under monitoring and control by upper management. The attempts at equipping employees with innovation-relevant decision-making authority or consulting the clients in designing novel projects were absent, while the move to change the organizational culture was measured. Originality/value This study makes several contributions to the academic literature. It offers an empirical assessment of the effects of emotional attachment and ownership concentration on innovation management, a phenomenon postulated by Kotlar et al. (2016). These two characteristics pulled innovation-boosting initiative in opposite directions creating a unique dynamics. This research also provides an example of organizational identity that hinders the innovation process in the context of a family business that survived and developed over generations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Quinn ◽  
Martin Hiebl ◽  
Romilda Mazzotta ◽  
Stefania Veltri

Purpose This paper aims to draw on a family business perspective to explore the historic accounting records of an Italian liquorice juice business. The applicability of the three-circle model of family business systems to such an historic context is examined. Design/methodology/approach Using archival records, the Cassa accounting book of the business is studied. Its transactions are examined to distinguish family and business items over the period from 1875 to 1920. Findings Through an analysis of the accounting records, the family, ownership and business systems are shown to overlap more than typically expected in a contemporary setting. Originality/value Contemporary literature suggests the three-circle model of a family business is relatively static, but it has not been applied to an historic context. This study suggests that the model can be applied in historic studies, but it is not static over time with its elements needing refinement.


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