scholarly journals Family Firms and Innovation from Founder to Successor

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Francesca Maria Cesaroni ◽  
Gail Denisse Chamochumbi Diaz ◽  
Annalisa Sentuti

Several empirical investigations indicate that family firms are more innovative under the founding generation’s leadership and become less innovative in later stages, while others state the opposite. Within this debate, limited attention has been devoted to understanding how intra-family succession might be an opportunity to maintain or improve family firms’ innovativeness. This paper aims to explore how family firms’ innovativeness may evolve from the first to the second generation and understand which conditions may favour or hamper this change. A qualitative approach based on a multiple case study was adopted, conducting seven face-to-face semi-structured interviews with founders and successors that formed the basis of four case studies. The results reveal four different dynamics that characterise how a first-generation family firm’s innovation capacities are or are not passed on to the second generation: decline, transformation, consolidation and preservation. Findings also show that these dynamics depend on the founders and successors’ approaches towards innovation. To better depict differences between them, we propose a typology of founders (lone innovator, collaborative innovator and orchestrator innovator) and successors (prodigal son, game changer, talent scout, faithful disciple) and explain how they influence the evolution of innovation from the founder generation to the next.

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-444
Author(s):  
Sharina Samsudin ◽  
◽  
Che Azlan Taib ◽  
Hanissah A. Razak ◽  
Rushami Zein Yusoff ◽  
...  

Organisations need to perform, productivity needs to be improved and organisations’ activities need to be more effective, especially after the world economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the need for quality improvements is crucial in both manufacturing and service sectors. The main purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of internal communication patterns in TQM implementation in Malaysia's manufacturing organisations. This is a multiple case study done using qualitative in-depth interview technique of data collections with 14 informants representing five large manufacturing organisations. Open-ended questions in semi-structured interviews enabled informants to describe their answers based on themes. The study has been carried out in manufacturing organisations originating from three different continents; two Malaysian local organisations, two eastern and one western organizations, and all of them located in Malaysia. In selecting the informants, the study adopts a judgment type of purposive sampling techniques. Results show that the most preferable and reliable communication medium between superiors and subordinates is still face-to-face meetings, although we are in the era of technology and IR4.0. Meanwhile, telephones are popular among the administration staff. The preferable form of communication between internal-operational is formal, without denying that informal form ofl communication is also important. Keywords: Internal communication, organizational communication, multiple case study, systematic process analysis, TQM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
Jan Urban ◽  
Zdeněk Caha

Family firms, accounting globally for the majority of companies, are the backbone of many national and local economies. Despite their importance as both employers and producers/service providers, research on these firms, analyzing their innovative behavior or comparing it with other forms of companies, has often been describing them as more conservative and less risk-raking, generating thus less innovation compared with other types of businesses. The goal of this study was to analyze the scope innovative activities in family owned companies on the basis of an empirical qualitative survey, founded on descriptive multiple-case study analysis of fifteen small, locally operating family owned firms in retail and service-industry, which have successfully survived 5 or more years in business. It used semi structured interviews with family owners and focused on identifying their attitudes to innovation as well as their skills to apply innovations of various types, important for their market competitiveness. The results of the survey, contrary to some earlier findings pointing to family firms ́ conservativeness, showed that these firms, due to their specific organizational culture, rely on innovations substantially, though the main focus of their innovations tends to be on product/technological changes as well as innovations in clients ́ relations.


Author(s):  
Parivash Mozafari ◽  
David Wray

This chapter reports the findings of a multiple-case study that was carried out during October-January 2013 held with 9 Iranian EFL teachers -five male, four females- from across 6 schools in the capital city of Tehran. Underpinned by a socio-cultural epistemology and utilising an interpretivist qualitative paradigm, this study aimed to explore participants' perspectives on the integration of computer and other ICT (information and communication technology) tools into their teaching. The focus was the individual and contextual factors which had influenced and shaped the perceptions and practices of these teachers. In so doing, in-depth data was collected based on a total of 36 face to face individual semi- structured interviews that were guided by 27 observations of classroom practices. Thematic analysis of the data indicated that ICT uptake by participants was seriously hampered by several interacting and interrelated areas that influenced participants' perspectives and practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei Bonamigo ◽  
Camila Guimarães Frech ◽  
Ana Carolina Custódio Lopes

Purpose This study aims to empirically investigate how organizations delivering services in business-to-business relations deal with the boundary paradox and knowledge asymmetry in value co-creation. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a qualitative multiple case study strategy. Datas were gathered through 13 semi-structured interviews that were then analyzed through the content analysis. Findings The authors identified three mechanisms that organizations use to deal with the boundary paradox and two strategies to handle the knowledge asymmetry. Research limitations/implications First, no opportunities were afforded to involve more participants. Second, owning to confidentiality reasons, not all organizations provided us documents to be analyzed. Practical implications The findings guide managers in balancing the use of contracts and trust in inter-firm collaborations and fostering the learning of customers. Also, insights to protect knowledge based on the paradox of openness in value co-creation. Originality/value This study’s findings address the gap in value co-creation literature concerning the lack of empirical studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 329
Author(s):  
Barbara Francioni ◽  
Fabio Musso ◽  
Giorgia Masili

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-76
Author(s):  
Noel Gilzean ◽  
James W. McAuley

This is a case study of the social and physical construction of an ‘Irish’ community in an English town. It asks how or why members of this community migrated and how they construct contemporary images of ‘home’. The article draws on semi-structured interviews and conversations with members of the contemporary Irish community in Huddersfield, including Irish-born and second-generation Irish respondents. We find that their sense of Irish identity is complex, encompassing the totality of social experience, much of which is influenced by often competing interpretations of social and political relationships and understandings of history. What constitutes Irish identity in Huddersfield is determined not just by these factors, but also by the ways in which individuals are socialised as members of different families, neighbourhoods, workplace or other social interest groups.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (254) ◽  
pp. 103-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Guerini

Abstract In this article, I focus on the position of Bergamasco, the Italo-romance variety spoken in the Province of Bergamo (Northern Italy), in the linguistic repertoire of the local Ghanaian immigrant community. I argue that Ghanaian immigrants do not speak Bergamasco since the local people refrain from speaking Bergamasco to them. Bergamasco can be regarded as a we-code (Gumperz, John. 1982. Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) of the indigenous community, whereas Italian – in most cases, a simplified variety of standard Italian – is the default choice when communicating with immigrants. The lack of input in combination with negative attitudes and a lack of motivation to acquire the dialect triggers a self-reinforcing dynamic, making the incorporation of Bergamasco into the linguistic repertoire of Ghanaian immigrants unlikely. Excerpts from a sample of face-to-face interactions and semi-structured interviews involving a group of first-generation Ghanaian immigrants reveal that Bergamasco tends to be perceived as a sort of “secret language” deliberately used by local people to exclude immigrants and other outsiders. This stereotype originates from and is reinforced by lack of competence on the part of the migrants, but is devoid of any foundation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-115
Author(s):  
Dhion Meitreya Vidhiasi

The change in life continues to change quickly. The 4.0 industry has been examined, marking a development in IT, including the Internet, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Everyone was not distinguished from technology by the development of IT in the 21st century. Different opinions from various parties to online learning come from face-to-face shifting paradigms. This sort of learning paradigm has multiple advantages and disadvantages to reach the aim of learning itself. This study seeks to assess the perspective of learners of online learning in this context in a COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on students of the English conversation of Akademi Maritim Nusantara Cilacap. The instruments used are semi-structured interviews. The researcher asked the students about the Covid-19 outbreak via the WhatsApp service. The research design employed in this research was a case study. The online study is unbelievably advantageous in the heart of the pandemic. AMN Cilacap has selected the Google Classroom Service as its Learning Management System. They will receive new terminology, knowledge, and technical skills. Thus, when they graduate in the future, students will no longer have problems using their primary app for education. Online learning is more effective than offline learning for a particular objective, information, skills, and students. Combining the benefit of online and offline teaching approaches known as combined learning will help overcome the potential limitations of online learning in the professional school of AMN Cilacap. But a mix of online and offline learning, notwithstanding the volatility of online, may be the best option to maximize its worth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Hiba Birgach ◽  
Taib Berrada El Azizi ◽  
Badr Habba

Purpose - Despite the importance attached to the governance of family businesses, few studies have focused on the importance of family business governance in the Moroccan context. This article provides some specificities of family firms and an overview of main governance mechanisms identified in the literature while presenting the main contributions of agency and stewardship theories. We introduce a governance approach centered on the issue of strengthening family ties and increasing the commitment of family members to the firm. The purpose of this paper is to identify the governance mechanisms adopted by CEOs of Moroccan family businesses of the second generation. Method - the authors used a qualitative method, using face to face semi-structured interviews among ten CEOs of family businesses in Morocco. Through the analysis of verbatim responses of Moroccan CEOs, we were able to identify some of the governance mechanisms they adopt to ensure a certain continuity of their business. Findings-The results suggest that most of the Moroccan managers opt for an informal and unwritten system of governance. According to them, the important thing is to share values and vision while maintaining communication. Even family meetings remain informal, the crucial thing is to preserve family solidarity, as far as the system of governance is known by all the members. We have identified three informal governance mechanisms, family meetings, task management, and sharing a family vision. The results have also shown some of the sources of conflicts among family members. Practical implications – This paper helps to raise awareness among Moroccan leaders on the importance of governance. Whether formal or informal, it is essential to have common rules shared by family members, which will enable the firm to last over time. Originality - This paper contributes to research on family businesses by exploring a different context especially in terms of culture and country values. Our paper has the originality to focus on a specific area of investigation, namely the Moroccan context, where the management model of family businesses is different from anterior contributions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1089-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Alfieri ◽  
Daniela Marzana ◽  
Sara Martinez Damia

The following study aims at inquiring into the motivations behind young migrants’ volunteerism in civic organizations in Italy, namely in starting and maintaining their engagement (preliminary vs. maintenance phase). The term “young migrants” refers to first and second generation of migrants who deal with two challenges: the transition to adulthood and the acquisition of a cultural identity. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 Sub-Saharan young migrants living in Italy (18-32 years old), 19 of first generation (1G) and 18 of second generation (2G). The Omoto and Snyder’s Volunteer Process Model (VPM, 1995) was used as an underpinning theoretical framework and a guide for the interpretations of the results. The findings indicate that a) motivations included in the VPM are also found for young migrants, b) some of these motivations take particular meaning for young migrants, c) some motivations are not included in the VPM and are specific of this sample. We named these last motivations: social norms, advocacy and ethno-cultural. In addition, some considerations may be advanced regarding the generation and the phase of motivation: 1G migrants are particularly moved by the importance of integration in the Italian context and by the promotion of their ethnic group while 2G migrants reported mostly the desire to understand their roots. The values, the concern for the community and the longing to develop relationships are the motivations for which all young migrants continue to volunteer; however, 1G migrants are also sustained by advocacy and ethno-cultural motivations. Implications and future directions are discussed.


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