Turnaround Strategies in Established Small Family Firms

This study employs a case-study approach to identify unique characteristics of established small family firms that affect their ability to initiate turnaround strategies when encountering an organizational crisis. In our case studies, we found evidence for family firms employing the standard strategies of top-management changes, infusion of external management expertise, and retrenchment that have been proposed in the general turnaround literature. The implementation of these strategies was, however, moderated by eight characteristics generally associated with family firms, including strong ties to the family firm, internal orientation, altruistic motives, and long-term goal orientation. The introduced framework contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of the turnaround challenges of established family firms and how they can be addressed. This is a topic of substantial practitioner interest considering the high failure rates of family firms.

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Innovation Motives in Family Firms: A Transgenerational View

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice ◽

10.1177/1042258718803051 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 256-287 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Vanessa Diaz-Moriana ◽

Eric Clinton ◽

Nadine Kammerlander ◽

G. T. Lumpkin ◽

Justin B. Craig

Keyword(s):

Family Firms ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Study Approach ◽

Data Collection Process ◽

Semistructured Interviews ◽

Multigenerational Family ◽

Multiple Case ◽

Innovation Patterns

Drawing on the transgenerational entrepreneurship perspective, we employ a multiple case study approach to investigate why multigenerational family firms innovate. The data collection process drew upon five in-depth cases comprising 42 semistructured interviews, 25 participant observations, and several thousand pages of historical data dating from 1916 to 2017. We find patterns on how the firms’ long-term view—embracing both the past and the future—influences the innovation motives of these firms. Specifically, we identify three innovation patterns: conserving, persisting and legacy-building. We introduce a set of propositions and a framework linking long-term orientation dimensions to innovation motives and innovation outcomes. Our research thus contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of innovation behavior in family firms.

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The Development of Successors From Followers to Leaders in Small Family Firms

Family Business Review ◽

10.1177/0894486508327822 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 109-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

John James Cater ◽

Robert T. Justis

Keyword(s):

Family Business ◽

Family Firms ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Future Research ◽

Study Approach ◽

Small Family ◽

Top Managers ◽

Parent Child Relationships

The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand the development of successors in the small family business, including their approach to the leadership of the firm. It examined variables (and their relationships) that help to explain family business successor leadership. A case study approach was followed, using grounded theory analysis of qualitative interviews of the top managers of six family businesses. It provided six propositions for future research—namely, concerning positive parent—child relationships, acquiring knowledge, long-term orientation, cooperation, successor roles, and risk orientation.

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Total quality management as driver for internationalization: a case study of a small family firm

Journal of Family Business Management ◽

10.1108/jfbm-07-2021-0077 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Michela Floris ◽

Michela Marongiu ◽

Cinzia Dessi ◽

Angela Dettori

Keyword(s):

Family Firms ◽

Single Case ◽

International Markets ◽

Total Quality ◽

Content Type ◽

Small Family ◽

Strategic Resources ◽

Internationalization Strategies

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and internationalization in small family firms, focusing on the role that the dimensions of TQM may have as strategic resources to implement successful internationalization strategies.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on the Resource-Based View (RBV), the study is based on a single case study, and data were gathered through in-depth interviews with the family owner-manager.FindingsFindings show that small family businesses that aim to operate in international markets have to invest constant attention toward TQM by developing strategies able to achieve excellence. More in detail, for small and medium family firms, TQM represents a driver to internationalize. Therefore, family-owned managers sustain that internationalization success depends on the increasing attention exhibited toward the following dimensions of quality, specifically on three main pillars: relationships, professionalization and long-term vision, which appear to be strategic resources in international markets. An interpretive model is proposed with a set of propositions.Research limitations/implicationsScholarly implications are threefold. First, findings contribute to the RBV theory by introducing the long-term vision as a strategic resource able to activate a loop between TQM and internationalization success. Second, results contribute to TQM literature, highlighting that it represents a driver to internationalize, and following a long-term perspective, its enhancement is stimulated by internationalization. Third, findings contribute to family business studies, underlining the relevance done of owners on professionalization as a strategic resource to ensure excellence and obtain success in overseas markets. The main drawback refers to the fact that results stemmed from one single case study. Further studies could deepen the analysis on multiple cases.Practical implicationsThe proposed case study represents a best practice and can stimulate other entrepreneurs and consultants to invest in TQM to thrive internationalization strategies.Originality/valueThe current study, elucidating that TQM is the driver to stimulate family business internationalization, proposes an interpretive model to study TQM and internationalization in small and medium family firms.

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Turnaround Strategies in Established Small Family Firms

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3161596 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

John Cater ◽

Andreas Schwab

Keyword(s):

Family Firms ◽

Small Family ◽

Turnaround Strategies

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Caregivers' Perceptions of Speech-Language Pathologist Talk About Child Language and Literacy Disorders

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2020_ajslp-20-00049 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 2049-2067

Author(s):

Karmen L. Porter ◽

Janna B. Oetting ◽

Loretta Pecchioni

Keyword(s):

Language And Literacy ◽

Collective Case Study ◽

Study Approach ◽

School Aged Children ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

Therapy Goals ◽

Semistructured Interviews ◽

Types Of Information

Purpose This study examined caregiver perceptions of their child's language and literacy disorder as influenced by communications with their speech-language pathologist. Method The participants were 12 caregivers of 10 school-aged children with language and literacy disorders. Employing qualitative methods, a collective case study approach was utilized in which the caregiver(s) of each child represented one case. The data came from semistructured interviews, codes emerged directly from the caregivers' responses during the interviews, and multiple coding passes using ATLAS.ti software were made until themes were evident. These themes were then further validated by conducting clinical file reviews and follow-up interviews with the caregivers. Results Caregivers' comments focused on the types of information received or not received, as well as the clarity of the information. This included information regarding their child's diagnosis, the long-term consequences of their child's disorder, and the connection between language and reading. Although caregivers were adept at describing their child's difficulties and therapy goals/objectives, their comments indicated that they struggled to understand their child's disorder in a way that was meaningful to them and their child. Conclusions The findings showed the value caregivers place on receiving clear and timely diagnostic information, as well as the complexity associated with caregivers' understanding of language and literacy disorders. The findings are discussed in terms of changes that could be made in clinical practice to better support children with language and literacy disorders and their families.

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Are Family Firms More Levered? An Analysis of Family and Non-Family Firms

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/21582440211022322 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 215824402110223

Author(s):

Jahanzaib Haider ◽

Abdul Qayyum ◽

Zalina Zainudin

Keyword(s):

Family Firms ◽

East Asian ◽

Ordinary Least Squares ◽

Maturity Structure ◽

The Family ◽

Asian Economies ◽

The Board Of Directors ◽

East Asian Economies ◽

Combined Data

This study analyzes the leverage policies of the family and non-family firms of eight East Asian Economies (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan) by using combined data of 690 family and non-family firms with 3,224 firm–years over the period 2006–2010. This study has used an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression for analyzing the data for the first question, while for the second question, logit regression has been used as the dependent variable (a binary variable). Prior research on family and non-family firms has revealed that family firms issue less (high) debt than non-family firms. Our analysis on a sample of East Asian Economies discloses that family firms have significantly different leverage levels than non-family firms, but their signs are not consistent. On the contrary, when the owner works as CEO/Chairman or member of the Board of Directors, then the family firms issue less debt than the non-family firms. Besides that, this study adds a new question that has not been addressed in the prior studies. The new question has focused on the speed of leverage adjustment. It is found that family firms and non-family firms regarding their debt maturity structure (short-term debt and long-term debt), the speed of leverage adjustments, and their decision to issue securities (i.e., debt vs. equity) are not significantly different. This study concluded that though family firms have a strong influence on each economy, but in South-East Asian countries, leverage policies of the family firms are not much different than that of non-family firms.

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Domain randomization-enhanced deep learning models for bird detection

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-80101-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xin Mao ◽

Jun Kang Chow ◽

Pin Siang Tan ◽

Kuan-fu Liu ◽

Jimmy Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Deep Learning ◽

Continuous Monitoring ◽

Bird Species ◽

Training Data ◽

Learning Models ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Bird Detection ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

AbstractAutomatic bird detection in ornithological analyses is limited by the accuracy of existing models, due to the lack of training data and the difficulties in extracting the fine-grained features required to distinguish bird species. Here we apply the domain randomization strategy to enhance the accuracy of the deep learning models in bird detection. Trained with virtual birds of sufficient variations in different environments, the model tends to focus on the fine-grained features of birds and achieves higher accuracies. Based on the 100 terabytes of 2-month continuous monitoring data of egrets, our results cover the findings using conventional manual observations, e.g., vertical stratification of egrets according to body size, and also open up opportunities of long-term bird surveys requiring intensive monitoring that is impractical using conventional methods, e.g., the weather influences on egrets, and the relationship of the migration schedules between the great egrets and little egrets.

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Non-Local and Multi-Scale Mechanisms for Image Inpainting

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21093281 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (9) ◽

pp. 3281

Author(s):

Xu He ◽

Yong Yin

Keyword(s):

Markov Random Fields ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Image Inpainting ◽

Long Distance ◽

Visual Appearance ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Non Local ◽

Relationship Of

Recently, deep learning-based techniques have shown great power in image inpainting especially dealing with squared holes. However, they fail to generate plausible results inside the missing regions for irregular and large holes as there is a lack of understanding between missing regions and existing counterparts. To overcome this limitation, we combine two non-local mechanisms including a contextual attention module (CAM) and an implicit diversified Markov random fields (ID-MRF) loss with a multi-scale architecture which uses several dense fusion blocks (DFB) based on the dense combination of dilated convolution to guide the generative network to restore discontinuous and continuous large masked areas. To prevent color discrepancies and grid-like artifacts, we apply the ID-MRF loss to improve the visual appearance by comparing similarities of long-distance feature patches. To further capture the long-term relationship of different regions in large missing regions, we introduce the CAM. Although CAM has the ability to create plausible results via reconstructing refined features, it depends on initial predicted results. Hence, we employ the DFB to obtain larger and more effective receptive fields, which benefits to predict more precise and fine-grained information for CAM. Extensive experiments on two widely-used datasets demonstrate that our proposed framework significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches both in quantity and quality.

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