Where have all the countries of origin gone? A note on the neglect of firm nationality in family business studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondrej Machek
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
Business Studies ◽  
Sampling Process ◽  
Privately Held Firms ◽  
Privately Held

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present arguments for the inclusion of greater sampling detail in comparative studies of family business that includes country of origin/ownership. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a commentary piece from a scholar focused on family business studies. Findings This commentary paper challenges several past family business studies and argues that mixing small family firms with foreign-owned family firms (subsidiaries of foreign companies) into one research sample of “family firms” can represent a significant source of bias. The authors assume that this bias is likely to be more pronounced in samples of privately-held family firms. Originality/value While most of the author’sknowledge on family firms is based on analyses of publicly-held firms, current editors of scholarly journals call for more research on privately-held firms since they represent the vast majority of firms worldwide. The development of the knowledge about private family firms crucially depends on the reliability of results. This paper emphasizes the need for research samples of comparable firms and more comments on the sampling process.

Advancing the multidimensional approach to family business professionalization

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gülçin Polat
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multidimensional Construct ◽  
Definition Of

PurposeAlthough it has been implicitly or explicitly assumed that family business professionalization is indeed a multidimensional construct, there has been a tendency to confine it to the employment of nonfamily managers and delegating authority in academic research. Dekker et al. (2013) have made an impressive work in untangling the multidimensional structure of family business professionalization. This paper aims to introduce a more comprehensive multidimensional approach and a framework to understand and study family business professionalization by identifying additional dimensions.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual framework relies on insights derived from the literature on family business professionalization, occupational professionalism and organizational professionalism to reveal the broader multidimensionality of family business professionalization.FindingsThe proposed framework extends the definition of family business professionalization and offers additional dimensions which were grouped under five overarching headings: professionalization of management, professionalization of organizational structure, processes and operations, professionalization of family's relationship with business, professionalization of employees and professionalization of work environment and culture.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by providing a wider approach for the understanding of family business professionalization. It presents a new way of thinking about family business professionalization, underlining the importance of employees and organizational culture for the professionalization process in family firms.

Passing on the legacy: exploring the dynamics of succession in family businesses in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asma AbdulRahim Chang ◽  
Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik ◽  
Navaz Naghavi
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Succession Planning ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
Interviewing Technique

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.

A family-enterprise collective certification trademark: consumer insight

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Maria Nikodemska-Wolowik ◽  
Piotr Zientara ◽  
Anna Zamojska
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Enterprise ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
Consumer Insight ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to find out how consumers respond to a proposed family-enterprise collective certification trademark and how they perceive family firms in general.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs a quantitative approach. It draws on a questionnaire survey conducted among 1,091 Polish consumers in January 2018. Statistical methods, such as exploratory factor analysis, were applied.FindingsPolish consumers responded positively to the proposed trademark. It also turned out that those who pay attention to the producer or the brand owner in a given sector also pay attention to the symbols placed on products or services from these sectors. There was a strong relationship between consumers' positive perceptions of family firms and their assessments of the proposed trademark. This did not extend to negative perceptions. The findings from this study may be generalisable to other post-communist societies.Practical implicationsFamily firms should redouble their efforts to introduce a family-enterprise collective certification trademark (not only in Poland, but also in those countries where such a trademark is non-existent). This should be handled by umbrella bodies for family business.Originality/valueLittle research work, based on a large and representative sample, has so far focussed on the issue of how consumers respond to a family-enterprise identity. The value of this study lies in deepening understanding of the processes and mechanisms that underlie the organisation–consumer relationship within the context of family-enterprise operation.

scholarly journals The effect of family business professionalization on dividend payout

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 971-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneleen Michiels ◽  
Lorraine Uhlaner ◽  
Julie Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Control Systems ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Tobit Regression ◽  
Dividend Payout ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Dividend Policies ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Privately Held

Purpose The topic of dividend policies of private family-controlled firms has aroused the interest of corporate finance and governance scholars and practitioners alike. However, a lot of questions concerning the dividends in privately held family firms remain unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a private family firm’s dividend payout is influenced by its degree of professionalization. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 492 small to medium-sized Belgian family-controlled businesses with Tobit regression models. Findings The results show that professionalized family-controlled firms pay higher dividends to their shareholders than do less-professionalized firms. In particular, the use of financial control systems, non-family involvement in governance systems, and the use of human resource control systems have a positive significant impact on the average level of dividend payout. Practical implications This study may be of interest to family business consultants and (potential) investors, as the results contradict the assumption that family businesses (especially those privately held) will always have a no or low dividend policy. Originality/value Investigating dividend payout in the context of other components than family ownership (in this case, professionalization) can broaden our understanding of dividend payout.

Socio-emotional wealth and family: revisiting the connection

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Schulze
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Family Dynamic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Complex Relationships

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.

Do dissimilarities in the family involvement in family firms lead to different levels of indebtedness? Evidence from Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Comino-Jurado ◽  
Sonia Sánchez-Andújar ◽  
Purificación Parrado-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Business Group ◽  
Different Levels

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.

The determinants of family business owners’ intrafamily succession intention

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonglong Zhou ◽  
Qiongjing Hu ◽  
Jingjing Yao ◽  
Xin Qin
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Control ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Positive Effect

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of family business owners’ intrafamily succession intention based on the theory of planned behavior and neo-institutional theory. Design/methodology/approach National survey data were collected from Chinese private firms in 2010, and a sample of 804 family firms was used to test the hypotheses. Findings At the micro level, familism, intrafamily succession regulation and family control have positive effects on owners’ intrafamily succession intention. At the macro level, district succession orientation, which is the district prevalence of intrafamily succession practice, has a positive effect on owners’ intrafamily succession intention. Additionally, the district succession orientation weakens the positive effects of intrafamily succession regulation and family control. Originality/value The paper contributes to the understanding of family business owners’ intrafamily succession intention from both micro and macro perspectives. Besides, it also contributes to the integration of micro and macro research by examining the interaction effects.

Family firms in Ibero-America: an introduction

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria José Parada ◽  
Claudio Müller ◽  
Alberto Gimeno
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Governance ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
The Family ◽  
Business Dynamics ◽  
And Behavior

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.

Management accounting research in family businesses: a review of the status quo and future agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumudu Kapiyangoda ◽  
Tharusha Gooneratne
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Informal Controls ◽  
Business Studies ◽  
The Status

Purpose This paper aims to review prior management accounting research founded upon family businesses. It presents the status quo, uncovers gaps in existing literature and postulates avenues for future scholarly inquiry. Design/methodology/approach In carrying out this review, a search was conducted accessing three search engines: Emerald insight, JSTOR and ScienceDirect encompassing journals which have published family business and management accounting research. Accordingly, 50 papers spanning 28 journals were identified as relevant and selected for review. Findings The review suggests that amid heightened research interest, while literature on management accounting in the realm of family firms has accelerated across time, how peculiarities of family businesses get articulated in the management accounting practices they deploy deserve further study. It also became evident that currently little is known on the use of various traditional and contemporary control practices, sustainability accounting and infusion of new management accounting ideas as well as the use of informal controls, which are very real to family businesses. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to the on-going knowledge debates on management accounting in family businesses and provides directions to potential researchers by illuminating the status quo of research and issues of significance which so far has been neglected. Practical implications This review, being placed at the nexus of management accounting and family businesses, offers lessons and insights to family business owners, managers and policymakers for the smooth functioning of businesses using management accounting insights. Originality/value Although a vast majority of family business studies in management accounting and controls have been published from 2013 onward, existing reviews capture publications up to 2012. Building upon, yet moving beyond reviews to date, and encompassing latest publications, this paper advances our understanding on the state of management accounting research in the field of family business.

scholarly journals Owner-manager when death do us part – roles of a widow in sudden succession in family firms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Almlöf ◽  
Hans Sjögren
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Psychological Ownership ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Unexpected Death ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThis study sheds light on a hitherto understudied group in family business literature: widows. We explore the roles a widow may take following the unexpected death of her owner-manager spouse when she had no salient role in the business prior to the death.Design/methodology/approachWe used a qualitative approach to research, to study inductively the roles considered and taken by three widows who unexpectedly succeeded as owners of Swedish privately held family firms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with widows and children in top management.FindingsWe construct a typology of four main roles a widow can take and analyse the underlying dimensions that they represent. We also analyse to which extent the choice of role widow can be explained by psychological ownership and double-loss theory. The typology can be used as a tool for family business owners and their advisors as the basis of an open and non-prejudiced discussion of the choices available to a widow.Originality/valueWe have investigated the factors that influence a widow's decision whether to take over the business or not, as suggested in previous research by, for example, Martinez et al. (2009). We explore the roles a widow can consider and adopt. The study advances our understanding of how businesses can remain as family firms also in the event of the unexpected death of an owner-manager (De Massis et al., 2008). We hereby contribute to the literature on sudden successions and on women in family businesses.

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