Families Divided: Culture and Control in Small Family Business

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 1463-1485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Ainsworth ◽  
Julie Wolfram Cox
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Organizational Control ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Small Family ◽  
The Family ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Interpretative Approach ◽  
And Control ◽  
Shared Understandings

In this article, we explore the dynamics of control, compliance and resistance using two case studies where ‘family’ has symbolic, material and ideological significance. While the ‘family’ metaphor is often invoked to suggest a normative unity and integration in large organizations, we investigate the use of shared understandings of divisions (Parker 1995) and difference, as well as unity and similarity, in constituting organizational culture in two small family-owned firms. Diverging from mainstream family business research, we adopt a critical and interpretative approach that incorporates employee perspectives and explores how forms of control and resistance need to be understood in relation to their local contexts. We also argue that organization studies could benefit from revisiting progressive assumptions that equate developments in forms of organization with forms of organizational control.

scholarly journals Towards the construct of paternalism to investigate control in family business governance

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-328
Author(s):  
Mariavittoria Cicellin ◽  
Donata Mussolino ◽  
Marcello Martinez ◽  
Mario Pezzillo Iacono
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Family ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
And Control ◽  
Succession Processes ◽  
Conceptual Work

The aim of this study is to adopt the construct of paternalism to understand control in family business governance. In particular, we want to investigate the concept of paternalism as mechanism of control in family firms. The theoretical reflections we here present first try to challenge the main theories used in family business literature, with a discussion about their limitations and boundaries of validity. Then, we present the construct of paternalism as a mechanism of governance and control that influences the decision making process, and in particular the succession processes. The construct of paternalism still needs sound methodological as well conceptual work, but we argue that it may be a starting point for building a rigorous and relevant research stream. This endeavour may help the family business research field to gain legitimacy in the broader academic arena.

scholarly journals Family Business: An Entrepreneurial Longer-Term Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Ratna L. Nugroho
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Business Research ◽  
The Family ◽  
Business Case Study ◽  
The Many

This family business case study is concerned with investigating the issue of the complexity of the many views of the family business research, focusing exclusively on the entrepreneurial concept. In taking this concept, three characteristics were identified in this case study, namely: the attitudes, the skills, and the behavior. Along with these findings, it is suggested that the conceptual model, the so-called “the three circles,” where this three circle has an overlap and identify as a longer-term entrepreneurial perspective within the family-owned enterprise.

scholarly journals Coupling Family Business Research with Organization Studies: Interpretations, Issues and Insights

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 775-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Salvato ◽  
Francesco Chirico ◽  
Leif Melin ◽  
David Seidl
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Business Organization ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Scholarly Research ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Empirical Context

Family-controlled firms are the most widespread form of business organization, but they have so far attracted limited attention from organizational scholars. The present work suggests that coupling research on family business organizations with organization studies will substantially benefit both areas of scholarly research. We explore how the five core defining features of family firms – ownership, management and governance, transgenerational intention, generational involvement and perceived identity – may be illuminated by extant research in organization studies, and how, in turn, organizational studies may be extended by investigating its key themes in the empirical context of family firms.

Revisiting the Study of Family Businesses: Methodological Challenges, Dilemmas, and Alternative Approaches

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Winter ◽  
Margaret A. Fitzgerald ◽  
Ramona K. Z. Heck ◽  
George W. Haynes ◽  
Sharon M. Danes
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
Methodological Challenges ◽  
The Family ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Social Units

Family businesses are vital but understudied economic and social units. Previous family business research is limited relative to its definitions, sampling, and resulting empirical evidence. This paper presents an alternative methodological approach to the study of family businesses with the potential for allowing multiperspective and detailed analyses of the nature and internal dynamics of both the family and the business and the interaction between the two.

Introduction of accounting practices in small family businesses

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esperanza Huerta ◽  
Yanira Petrides ◽  
Denise O’Shaughnessy
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Perceived Competence ◽  
Family Businesses ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Managerial Accounting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Small Family ◽  
The Family ◽  
Small Family Business

Purpose This research investigates the introduction of accounting practices into small family businesses, based on socioemotional wealth theory. Design/methodology/approach A multiple-case study was conducted gathering data through interviews and documents (proprietary and public). The sample included six businesses (five Mexican and one American) from different manufacturing and service industries. Findings It was found that, although owners control the implementation of accounting practices, others (including family employees, non-family employees and external experts) at times propose practices. The owner’s control can be relaxed, or even eliminated, as the result of proposals from some family employees. However, the degree of influence of family employees is not linked to the closeness of the family relationship, but rather to the owners’ perceived competence of the family employee, indicating an interaction between competence and experience on one side, and family ties on the other. Research limitations/implications First, the owners chose which documentary data to provide and who was accessible for interviews, potentially biasing findings. Second, the degree of influence family employees can exert might change over time. Third, the study included a limited number of interviews, which can increase the risk of bias. Finally, all firms studied were still managed by the founder. It is possible that small family businesses that have undergone a succession process might incorporate accounting practices differently. Practical implications Organizations promoting the implementation of managerial accounting practices should be aware that, in addition to the owner, some family employees and external experts could influence business practices. Accountants already providing accounting services to small family business are also a good source for proposing managerial accounting practices Originality/value This study contributes to theory in four ways. First, it expands socioemotional theory to include the perceived competence of the family employee as a potential moderator in the decision-making process. Second, it categorizes the actors who can influence managerial accounting practices in small family businesses. Third, it further refines the role of these actors, based on their degree of influence. Fourth, it proposes a model that describes the introduction of managerial accounting practices in small family business.

scholarly journals Stages of busi(-)ness and identity

Ethnologies ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Lightfoot ◽  
Valérie Fournier
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Work Space ◽  
Small Family ◽  
The Family ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Creation

Résumé This article explores how space gets mobilised in the performance of “family business”. The very concept of the “family business” collapses some deeply entrenched distinctions in Western modern societies, those between home and work, private and public, family life and business rationality, distinctions that are mapped over space through the creation of boundaries between work space and family space, home and office. The “family business”, especially when run from home, unsticks this ordered sense of space as familial images and business stages are collapsed. Our analysis of small family run boarding kennels focuses on the way space is used to frame different stages of action. In particular, we draw upon theatrical metaphors to explore the work that goes into the staging of identities and social relations. We first discuss the relationships between space, stages, performance and identity through a theatrical lens; we then draw upon material from our study of family run boarding kennels to explore how owner-managers use space as a malleable resource from which they carve out and assemble different stages to perform their business and themselves to different audiences. After going back into the theatre to discuss the role of stages in weaving together coherent stories in the family business or in drama, we close by exploring the limitations of the theatrical metaphor for the analysis of social life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document