Prosperity over time and across generations: the role of values and virtues in family businesses

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Jose Parada ◽  
Georges Samara ◽  
Alexandra Dawson ◽  
Eduard Bonet
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Value Transmission ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cardinal Virtues ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

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.

Family succession, professionalization and internationalization: a study of Brazilian family businesses

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusto Dalmoro Costa ◽  
Aurora Carneiro Zen ◽  
Everson dos Santos Spindler
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Internationalization Strategies ◽  
The Relationship

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.

Family business successors' motivation and innovation capabilities: the case of Kosovo

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asdren Toska ◽  
Veland Ramadani ◽  
Léo-Paul Dana ◽  
Gadaf Rexhepi ◽  
Jusuf Zeqiri
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Emerging Country

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the second-generation successors’ motives to join family businesses and their ability to generate innovation within them.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative methodology is used in this study. Data were collected through structured interview with the second-generation representatives, where the data obtained helped us to come to the results and answer the research questions of the study. A total of 15 interviews were conducted.FindingsThe findings of this study show that the second generation is motivated to continue the family business, cases show that successors since childhood have been oriented towards building an entrepreneurial mindset and also after entering the family business have generated innovation.Originality/valueThe study will bring theoretical implications to the family business literature, providing scientific evidence for the second generation of family businesses, from an emerging country such as Kosovo. As Kosovo is an emerging country, the study will contribute to the literature, suggesting other studies by emerging countries in this way to see the similarities and differences.

Zayed Al Hussaini Group: the road ahead for the family business in the UAE

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anam Shahid ◽  
Virginia Bodolica ◽  
Martin Spraggon
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Entire Group ◽  
List Type ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
The Family ◽  
Over Time

Subject areaCorporate strategy and family business management.Study level/applicabilityThe case is designed for usage in senior-level undergraduate courses of strategic management and managing family businesses.Case overviewThis case study relates the story of the launch and development of Zayed Al Hussaini Group, a family business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The business had been established a year after the unionization of the different Emirates by the founder, Zayed Al Hussaini, in partnership with his brother. Following a series of strategic moves, such as acquisitions and divestures, and adverse family-related events, the Group was led solely by the founder himself. Over the years, Zayed Al Hussaini Group has grown to become a successful family business in various industries of its operation, but following the death of the founder's son, the company activities have been struck with chaos. Zayed's nephew, Ahmed, who had left the family business to continue his studies and work at McKinsey & Company in London, has been called back home after eight years to take the lead of the entire Group. However, he is faced with several challenges, such as dealing with the family gap he has developed over time and balancing family and business priorities. Will Ahmed be able to make the right decisions in the role and responsibilities that have been bestowed upon him?Expected learning outcomesTo analyse the process of launching a family business and making strategic decisions for managing its development over time.To assess the potential difficulties and challenges which are associated with managing a family-run organization.To evaluate the effectiveness of decisions with regards to the company's growth and succession management planning.To apply relevant theoretical concepts to the analysis of complex situations in the specific context of family businesses.Supplementary materialsTeaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or [email protected] request teaching notes.

scholarly journals Coexistence, Unity, Professionalism and Prudence

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel-Angel Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
The Family ◽  
Over Time

Family firms are complex and dynamic entities that are rich with peculiar, idiosyncratic features. The objective of this paper is to provide guidance to help those involved in family businesses, businesspersons, and family members to pursue the continuity of the family firm over time. Based on the author’s experience with entrepreneurs who built successful businesses, this paper identifies four elements that are critical to achieve transgenerational continuity in family firms, namely: coexistence, unity, professionalism, and prudence. The analysis of each element provides suggestions and key considerations for both scholars and practitioners in the family business field.

Examining employment relationship activities in family business research

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Ferraro ◽  
Jennifer Marrone
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Employment Relationship ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
Advance Theory

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the family business literature on human resource management (HRM) activities within family-owned businesses to advance theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a review of research on the formation, adaptation, and termination of the employment relationship within family businesses. Findings Important areas for future research are revealed. For example, little research investigates how family members are recruited, socialized, or how exit decisions are made. In contrast, significant attention has been given to role transitions during succession. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on managing employment relationships (e.g. recruitment, selection, etc.) within family businesses. The research revealed HRM activities within family businesses are often informal so aspects of the employment relationship may not be fully captured by extant research. Practical implications This review provides specific HRM suggestions for practitioners to consider. For example, this review highlights that training inside the family business can be as effective as training outside the family business. Originality/value This review is novel in applying an established HRM framework to family business research and focuses on HRM activities of family members as opposed to non-family employees. The paper offers considerations for families bringing next generation members into their businesses and preparing offspring to run them successfully.

The innovation and internationalisation processes of family businesses

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitor Braga ◽  
Aldina Correia ◽  
Alexandra Braga ◽  
Sofia Lemos
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Family Management ◽  
Multivariate Statistic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Innovation ◽  
The Family ◽  
Internationalisation Strategies ◽  
Innovation Processes

Purpose The success of the family firms cannot be detached from the current paradigm where, within the present economic conditions, economic agents struggle to exploit the existing opportunities and need to take into account the risks associated to the international arena and the innovation processes. The internationalisation and innovation processes may trigger resistance within family business due to their relatively higher difficulty to take risks and to invest in industries outside the scope of their original core business. Innovation and internationalisation processes become relevant strategies for the family firms’ continuity and success. In line with such fact, the aim of this paper is to contribute with insights regarding the processes of innovation and internationalisation within family businesses. In particular, this paper aims to assess the propensity of such firms to apply such strategies, to identify the particular business behaviour and to assess the extent to which the particulars of family firms may constraint or lead to the implementation of innovation policies, and thus its internationalisation. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through questionnaires within family business aiming to understand the scope and characteristics of internationalisation and innovation processes within these firms. The 154 replies from such data collection were analysed using different multivariate statistic procedures, although this paper is based on factorial and correlation analysis. Findings The analysis of the results shows that there is an association between the processes of innovation and internationalisation within family business. In addition, the results also suggest a typology of firms regarding their innovation and internationalisation strategies and motivations. Research limitations/implications The results of this paper are, to some extent, limited because they did not allow comparing the findings with data from non-family business. However, the authors’ aim was not to distinguish family firms, but rather to characterise them. Practical implications This paper expects to contribute with lessons for the management of family business and to raise awareness of the constraints faced by family business. It is important to highlight that family business performance may be affected by a lower propensity to risk-taking attitudes, by the lack of non-family management and to the necessity of separating the family and the business in the business dimensions that the family limits the business growth. Originality/value Although there is a significant amount of the literature devoted to explore family business, innovation and internationalisation studies, very few draw on the relationship between internationalisation and innovation processes within family business. This paper explores such a relationship within a particular business context – the family dynamics that strongly affect management and business development.

Social identity and family business: exploring family social capital

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Schmidts ◽  
Deborah Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Social Capital ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Impact

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.

Strong governance: a result of evolutionary and revolutionary processes

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Collins ◽  
Ken McCracken ◽  
Barbara Murray ◽  
Martin Stepek
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Family Dynamics ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This paper is the first in a regular series of articles in JFBM that will share “a conversation with” thought leaders who are active in the family business space. The world of family business is, like many other arenas, constantly evolving and as the authors learn more about how and why families “do business” the approaches and tools for working with them also evolve. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate further new research in areas that practically affect family businesses and to “open the door” to practical insights that will excite researchers and provide impetus for new and exciting study. The specific purpose of this paper is to explore “what is strong governance.” There has been much interest in governance lately yet there is a tendency to treat governance in a formulaic way such that, at the moment, the notion that every family business must have a family council or a formal structure in order to be considered “effective” and “successful” predominates. The authors’ panel challenges and discusses this notion drawing on the experience and knowledge as family business advisors, consultants and owners. Design/methodology/approach – The impetus for this particular conversation is a result of a brainstorming conversation that Lorna Collins and Barbara Murray held in February 2014 where they focussed on “how JFBM can encourage and stimulate researchers to engage in aspects of research that makes a difference to the family business in a practical way.” This paper reports a conversation between Barbara Murray (Barbara), Ken McCracken (Ken) and Martin Stepek (Martin), three leading lights in the UK family business advising space, all of whom have been involved in running or advising family businesses for more than three decades, held in August 2015. The conversation was held via telephone and lasted just over 60 minutes. Lorna Collins acted as moderator. Findings – Strong governance is not just about instituting a “family council” or embedding formal governance mechanisms in a family business. Evolutionary adaption by family members usually prevails such that any mechanism is changed and adapted over time to suit and fit the needs of the family business. Many successful family businesses do not have recognized “formal” governance mechanisms but, it is contended, they are still highly successful and effective. Future areas of research in governance are also suggested. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the family business discourse because the debate it reports challenges the basic assumptions upon which much consulting and advisory practice is conducted. It also challenges the notion of “best practice” and what is “new best practice” and how is it that any “best practice” is determined to be “best.” Furthermore, the panel provides insights in to the “impact of family dynamics on governance” and “the impact of family dynamics on advisors.” The paper content is original in that it provides an authentic and timely narrative between active family business practitioners who are also scholars and owners.

Small family business in Russia: formal or informal?

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 809-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Chepurenko
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Small Family ◽  
Scale Family ◽  
Russian State

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deal with informal entrepreneurial activity of micro and small family businesses in the specific transitional environment. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses two cases – an informal micro business (“marginal” family business), and a formal retail small firm (“simpleton” family firm), respectively, of a panel conducted in 2013–2015 in Moscow. Findings First, the real distribution of responsibilities between family members is informal; it relies more on interpersonal trust and “common law.” Second, exactly the ease of governing such trust-based businesses for the founders’ generation sets limits of succession of small-scale family businesses. Third, as trust in the state is very low, the policy of Russian authorities to quickly force informal entrepreneurs to become legalized is substantially wrong; the results would be either a transformation of “simpleton” into “marginal” businesses or quitting business. Research limitations/implications Research limitations of the study are the number of observations and the localization of the panel only in the capital of Russia. Practical implications The fundamental failure of Russian State policy toward small-scale family businesses is its attempt to convince “marginal” to formalize and to oppress “simpleton” family businesses pushing them into informality. In fact, it should be designed vice versa: tolerate “marginal” businesses and let them to “live and die” while shaping a friendly environment for “simpleton” family firms. Originality/value The paper argues that the most important facet of informality in small family entrepreneurship is the informal property rights and governance duties’ distribution among the family members.

Does family involvement matter post IPO? Adding value through advertising in family firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanas Nik Nikolov ◽  
Yuan Wen
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Publicly Traded ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Family

PurposeThis paper brings together research on advertising, family business, and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm to examine performance differences between publicly traded US family vs non-family firms. The purpose of this paper is to understand the heterogeneity of family vs non-family firm advertising after such firms become publicly traded.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on the RBV of the firm, as well as on extensive empirical literature in family business and advertising research to empirically examine the differences between family and non-family firms in terms of performance.FindingsUsing panel data from over 2,000 companies across ten years, this research demonstrates that family businesses have higher advertising intensity than competitors, and achieve higher performance returns on their advertising investments, relative to non-family competitors. The results suggest that the “familiness” of public family firms is an intangible resource that, when combined with their advertising investments, affords family businesses a relative advantage compared to non-family businesses.Research limitations/implicationsFamily involvement in publicly traded firms may contribute toward a richer resource endowment and result in creating synergistic effects between firm “familiness” and the public status of the firm. The paper contributes toward the RBV of the firm and the advertising literature. Limitations include the lack of qualitative data to ground the findings and potential moderating effects.Practical implicationsUnderstanding how family firms’ advertising spending influences their consequent performance provides new information to family firms’ owners and management, as well as investors. The authors suggest that the “familiness” of public family firms may provide a significant advantage over their non-family-owned competitors.Social implicationsThe implications for society include that the family firm as an organizational form does not need to be relegated to a second-class citizen status in the business world: indeed, combining family firms’ characteristics within a publicly traded platform may provide firm performance benefits which benefit the founding family and other stakeholders.Originality/valueThis study contributes by highlighting the important influence of family involvement on advertising investment in the public family firm, a topic which has received limited attention. Second, it also integrates public ownership in family firms with the family involvement–advertising–firm performance relationship. As such, it uncovers a new pathway through which the family effect is leveraged to increase firm performance. Third, this study also contributes to the advertising and resource building literatures by identifying advertising as an additional resource which magnifies the impact of the bundle of resources available to the public family firm. Fourth, the use of an extensive panel data set allows for a more complex empirical investigation of the inherently dynamic relationships in the data and thus provides a contribution to the empirical stream of research in family business.

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