The auditor as consigliere in family firm

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven-Olof Yrjö Collin ◽  
Jenny Ahlberg ◽  
Karin Berg ◽  
Pernilla Broberg ◽  
Amelie Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Professional Independence ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a concept of auditor as consigliere in family firms, that captures additional functions to monitoring, those of advice, mediating, and conveying. Design/methodology/approach The concept is tested through a survey conducted on 309 Swedish auditors. Findings The data indicate that the consigliere role is generally not emphasized, indicating that auditors primarily perform the monitoring role of the audit. However, the authors do find indications of the auditor performing the consigliere role, through performing the advisory and mediating functions and, to a smaller degree, the conveying function. Research limitations/implications The survey is limited in response rate and in separating governance situations from consigliere functions. Practical implications With reservation for professional independence, the auditor as consigliere could be part of the governance of the family firm, but should be trained for this activity. Social implications Regulators should pay attention to the consigliere role when, for example, stipulating compulsory rotation of auditors. Originality/value The paper shows that the auditor is more than a monitor in family firms. The consigliere role, even if not at all dominating, has to be considered, at least in family firms.

Ninety days convert recruits into hosts at Edwardian Group London

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-18
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Training And Development ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Future ◽  
First 90 Days ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Describes the various approaches taken to training and development at Edwardian Group London, a group of hotels. Design/methodology/approach – Examines the reasons for the training, the form it takes and the results it has achieved. Findings – Emphasizes the importance the company attaches to training in the first 90 days of an employee's tenure, when recruits receive general induction training plus training specific to their area of operation. Practical implications – Outlines how the company spots and develops its managers of the future. Social implications – Highlights the crucial role of training in ensuring that hotel guests have the best possible stay. Originality/value – Provides a thorough examination of the various forms of training at Edwardian Group London.

Management and Michael Polanyi’s thought

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-387
Author(s):  
Struan Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Science And Society ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
History Of ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Scientific Life

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of management ideas as a resource for developing a new understanding of science and society. Design/methodology/approach Three important articles of Polanyi are studied in detail. Findings That writings of Graicunas, Foch and Liddell Hart definitely influenced the development of Polanyi’s thinking and writings of Gulick, Mooney among other management/organization theorists also likely contributed to Polanyi’s thought. Research limitations/implications The study opens a new seam for Polanyi intellectual – historical scholarship. Practical implications The article sheds light on facets of scientific life, including how scientists themselves participate in the overall management of science. Social implications This discussion of Polanyi deepens the appreciation of Liberal society’s functioning. Originality/value No other Polanyi scholar has dug deeply into the history of management, considering its intellectual value to Polanyi.

Ponti's employees get the chance to “ask the family”

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-24
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Food Group ◽  
Family Values ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Founding Family ◽  
The Family ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Demonstrates the importance of family values in employment policies at Italian food group Ponti's. Design/methodology/approach – Looks at the firm's recruitment, training and reward policies and provides the comments of employees who work there. Findings – Highlights the importance of recruiting from within to maintaining the organizational culture and observes that a number of employees have been with “the family” for more than 30 years. Practical implications – Reveals that Ponti's offers its employees not only restaurant-based and highly practical training followed by targeted courses but also the chance to visit the area of Italy from which the founding family originates. Social implications – Explains the policies – including promotion from within – that are helping one business in the volatile catering sector to keeping its employees longer than the average. Originality/value – Provides examples of individual employees who have worked their way up the company hierarchy.

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.

Revisiting women’s entrepreneurship

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Women Entrepreneurs ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Women’S Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Family ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Women's Entrepreneurship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study women’s entrepreneurship from the family-firm context and radical subjectivist (RS) economics. While women’s entrepreneurship is a long-standing topic of research interest, there have been calls for more theory-oriented research and research which takes context factors in women’s entrepreneurship seriously. The paper responds to this by using an RS’s view of economics as a theoretical lens to consider women’s entrepreneurship in family firms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper briefly reviews the potential of the family-firm context for examining women’s entrepreneurship in a non-reductive fashion, then outlines radical subjectivism (RS). The three main elements of RS’s “entrepreneurial imagination” are explained, then linked with other theories of family-firm behaviour and applied to casework on women entrepreneurs in family firms. Findings – Each element of the entrepreneurial imagination, empathy, modularity and self-organization, generates new research questions which contest previous apparently settled views about women entrepreneurs. Protocols for investigating the questions are suggested. The third element, self-organization, while more difficult to operationalize for empirical testing, suggests how women’s entrepreneurship might generate new industries. Research limitations/implications – While this is primarily a conceptual study, its case studies invite further exploration of both women entrepreneurs and family firms. The RS perspective could also increase understanding of shared leadership and innovation in family firms. Specific research questions and protocols for investigating them are offered. Practical implications – Insights from the research have practical implications for entrepreneurship education, for understanding entrepreneurship at the level of society, the firm and the individual. Social implications – The importance of both family firms and women entrepreneurs to society makes it important to understand both of them better. The RS perspective can help. Originality/value – The paper highlights the value of combining attention to entrepreneurial context (family firms) and theory (RS) to reinvigorate some old research questions about women entrepreneurs. The combination of family firms and RS is also novel.

Stars of the future give Bhushan Power and Steel the edge

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Author(s):  
Geeta Rana ◽  
Alok Kumar Goel
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Employee Development ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Future ◽  
Development Initiatives ◽  
Employee Competencies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Consider the various employee-development initiatives at Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL), India. Design/methodology/approach – Underlines the key role of employee development at the firm, and explains in particular how it develops its future managers. Findings – Reveals how employee competencies are mapped and how training is designed around these and the skill needs of the company. Practical implications – Details the benefits of this approach for both individual employees and the company. Social implications – Advances the view that BPSL’s managers are more rounded and knowledgeable than those in comparable Indian companies. Originality/value – Highlights the importance of taking into account the skill needs of the individual as well as the organization as a whole.

Family firm employees: identification, stewardship practices and citizenship behaviors

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele N. Medina-Craven ◽  
Danielle Cooper ◽  
Christopher Penney ◽  
Miguel P. Caldas
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Citizenship ◽  
Organizational Identification ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Stewardship Theory ◽  
Citizenship Behaviors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Identification ◽  
The Family

PurposeThis paper aims to understand the factors that influence employee organizational identification in family firms, and through identification, the willingness to engage in citizenship behaviors.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from the stewardship theory, the authors develop a model to test the relationships between family relatedness and relational identification to the family firm owner, employee-focused stewardship practices, organizational identification and organizational citizenship behaviors. The authors test the hypotheses using regression and the Preacher and Hayes PROCESS macro on a sample of 292 family firm employees.FindingsThe findings suggest that both relational identification with the family firm owner and employee-focused stewardship practices positively influence organizational identification, and that familial ties to the family firm owner can influence relationships with citizenship behaviors for non-family employees.Originality/valueThe authors build on existing literature to investigate how employees identify themselves within a family firm and how stewardship practices from the employee's perspective (rather than managers' or founders' perspectives) can influence organizational identification and citizenship behaviors.

Family firm innovation strategy: contradictions and tradition

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Lattuch
Keyword(s):  
Family Firms ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Innovation Strategy ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Research Propositions ◽  
New Research ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose When studying innovation in family firms, several contradictions appear, as the family and the firm represent different social systems that follow different rules and expectations. This paper aims to argue that a deeper understanding and effective management of those paradoxes is crucial for the family firm’s innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach Using theory-building principles, this paper has an abductive character; new research propositions are offered to provide insights into the apparently paradoxical aspects of successfully managing a family firm’s innovation strategy. Findings Three contradictions are presented and discussed: first, the family can be a hazard and source for the firm; second, family members acting as shareholder and investor; and third, established practice and innovation issues may compete against each other in the quest to sustainably rejuvenate the organization. Inferences are drawn from these apparent contradictions concerning family firm management, providing a basis to form propositions that effectively support innovation. Originality/value This paper provides a paradoxical perspective on the innovation phenomenon in family firms and offers practical implications to help leaders better shape their organization’s innovation strategy.

Emotional intelligence in family firms

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Gómez Betancourt ◽  
Isabel C. Botero ◽  
Jose Bernardo Betancourt Ramirez ◽  
Maria Piedad López Vergara
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Interpersonal Dynamics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family

Purpose – Although researchers have highlighted the importance of relational and family factors for the sustainability of a family firm, there is not much empirical research exploring how emotions and the management of emotions play a role in the interpersonal dynamics of family business owners. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the way family members manage their emotions affects the interpersonal dynamics in the family, business, and ownership subsystems of a family firm. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an in-depth case study from a family firm in Colombia-South America. Findings – The results indicate that the capability that family members have to manage their emotions influences the interpersonal dynamics that take place in the family firm at the individual and group level. In this case, the paper found that although emotional intelligence (EI) affected interpersonal relationships in a firm, this effect was based on the individual's willingness to use their EI capabilities, previous history between people, and the goals individuals have within each subsystem in a family firm. The paper also found that interpersonal dynamics, in turn, influence how family members work together. Research limitations/implications – Because this study uses an in-depth case study, the intention of the paper is to provide an initial picture of how EI can play a role in the interpersonal interactions between family business owners. The authors hope that this study can be used as a building block to enhance the understanding of the role of EI in family firms. Practical implications – EI represents an individual's capability to perceive, understand, manage, and regulate self and other's emotions. For family firms, this means that family business owners can use this capability to determine how to enact their roles in the family firm and how to interact with other to ensure harmony in their relationships. Originality/value – This paper builds on previous work on emotions in family firms to explore the role of EI in family firms, and provides an empirical exploration of the role of management of emotions in family firms.

The relevance of relational capabilities in collaborative decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Della Corte ◽  
Massimo Aria ◽  
Giovanna Del Gaudio ◽  
Jay Brian Barney ◽  
Cihan Cobanoglu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tourist Destinations ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Relational Capabilities ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Gain Access

Purpose This study aims to focus on inter-firm collaboration, exploring the main capabilities that can make a business more or less open to collaboration; it also considers the role of both firm-specific and relationship-specific capabilities. The paper proposes a model that can be used to study how the combination of the two categories of capabilities determines a firm’s approach to collaboration. Design/methodology/approach Through a survey of high-end hotels in tourist destinations in Italy and the USA, this paper tests variable connected with firm-specific and relationship-specific aspects, using confirmatory factor analysis. Findings Firms with greater capabilities are less open to cooperation; weaker firms with fewer resources appear to be more inclined to cooperate, probably to gain access to resources and competencies they do not possess. Research limitations/implications From a scientific perspective, this paper suggests an analysis based on both individual and relational capabilities when deciding whether to collaborate, while most studies based on a relational view just consider relational capabilities. The study could be enlarged to other countries and contexts. Practical implications From a practical perspective, it indicates the importance of accounting for different and sometimes diverging aspects when deciding to cooperate. Social implications In terms of social implications, it shows that, apart from the relational capabilities they have, potential partners can decide not to collaborate. Originality/value The paper suggests a method of analyzing both individual and relational capabilities when deciding whether to engage in a collaboration. It shows that firms’ behavior does not necessarily depend on the firm’s relational capabilities.

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