scholarly journals Family Business Formalization in South Eastern Nigeria: The Role of Intra-Industry Network

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Kenneth Chukwujioke Agbim

In most developing countries, majority of the family businesses are started with the support of networks on a small scale in the informal sector because the families and entrepreneurs are poor. Moreover, in areas where they are actively involved in networks, the benefits of such network relationships are rarely harnessed. In South Eastern Nigeria, the state of informality among family businesses has become a source of worry to both the State governments and owner-managers of family businesses. This is coming on the heels of the country’s economic recession and the need for the governments to increase their internally generated revenue. And the quest by the family business owner-managers to evade tax so as to increase their income. This is evident from the increasing number of family businesses that are operating outside government system of regulation in the zone. Based on these scenarios this study seeks to assess the effect of intra-industry network on family business formalization in South Eastern Nigeria. Survey design was adopted for the study. The study data were generated through questionnaire and analyzed using linear regression. The results show that intra-industry network significantly and positively affect family business formalization. The researcher recommends encouraging family business owner-managers to be interconnected with other founder/CEOs or descendant/CEOs and family firm employees within the same industry for the mutual benefit of acquiring and sharing information and knowledge that will facilitate the formalization process of their family businesses.

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Saldaña ◽  
Fernando Ruiz ◽  
Laura Gaona ◽  
Juan Jesús Nahuat ◽  
Kelly Muñoz Peña

Given that the Mexican family provides more support and assurance than the State, the family still takes an important place in the Mexican`s life. Therefore, this work describes and analyzes how this phenomenon can impact the profitability and continuity of the family businesses in our country. To achieve this objective it was done a documentary interdisciplinary consultation including classic authors of the Mexican`s psychology and present contributions from the field of the family business. The results obtained showed that the expectations that a family who owns a business has respect to the family and the family business itself have an effect on the assets and the family business`s legacy. It is concluded that it is not about to nullify the influence of the family in the family business, but rather to manage it adequately.                                                                                                


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-75
Author(s):  
Ignacio Gallego Domínguez

The most crucial challenge for family businesses is the transfer to the next generation. It affects both the leadership and the ownership of the enterprise, whether individual or corporate. Transferring the ownership of the organization at the time of the death of the owner, raises important questions in the Spanish Civil Code system, in which inheritance contracts are not allowed, and there are rigid forced heirship provisions, which limit the testator's freedom. The correct and appropriate transmission of the family business requires adequate planning, which must lead to write a will -to avoid intestacy-, and make use of those special mechanisms that contemplate the payment of the forced heirship with money outside the state, as well as those others allowed in Spanish law that help to channel the phenomenon. Succession planning also requires being vigilant to comply with the legal requirements for obtaining benefits in inheritance tax.


2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 140-150
Author(s):  
Yu. Solonenko

One of the traditional methods of the investigation of family business, as the most common and sustainable form of management in the world, is its comparison with the activities of non-family businesses. This approach makes it possible` to introduce into the analysis a fairly large list of indicators, which in turn increases the understanding of the functioning of both family and non-family companies. In this paper the investigation of family enterprises is carried out on the basis of developments of leading foreign scientists and the table is formed. Thus, the invesstigation demonstrates significant differences between family and non-family business, which are reflected in the general indicators, structural organization, forms of ownership, management, theoretical justification of doing business, business goals, available resources of the firm. Differences in both interior and exterior of the operation of these business facilities are defined. In general, the family business is socially oriented, aimed at stable moderate growth, resilient in times of crisis, adaptive, risk-averse, aimed at the long-term perspective of existence in order to pass it on to the next family generation. Analyzing the social systems of economically successful countries, such as the United States, Japan, the European Union, the Persian Gulf and East Asia, we find that the main form of ownership belongs to the family business. More detailed analysis of the economic systems of these countries reveals the formation of the balance between the ownership structure and the power structure. The ownership structure is characterized by large percentage of independent private owners, where the family form of ownership is widely represented in the leading sectors of the economy, and the family business itself is the dominant form of entrepreneurship. It is the family business that configures the property system within a single country, forming powerful social stratum of independent owners who control the main resources of the state. The presence of this layer results in the evolution of power democracy, where state institutions do not have declarative powers, but operate in real formal democracy. The level of real democracy (democracy) in the country is determined not by freedom-loving articles of the Constitution, but by the number of independent owners in the state. Family businesses and independent family owners are closely linked to local communities, are an integral part of them, providing jobs and employment in the regions, which is the basis for economic prosperity of local communities and the country as a whole.


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph H. Astrachan ◽  
Peter Jaskiewicz

This article introduces a formula to assess the total value of privately held family businesses from the owner's perspective. It is argued that the total value of a business is not only composed of its financial worth and private benefits, as is usually assumed by traditional financial theory, but that emotional components also have an impact on valuation. In particular, it is assumed that emotional returns (ER) positively affect total value, whereas emotional costs (EC) negatively affect total value. Even though every stakeholder faces emotional costs and returns, it is solely the family business owner who ultimately decides on the worth of a business and consequently factors ER-EC into his or her valuation. The presented formula provides a better understanding of investment decisions in family businesses and a more accurate valuation of these businesses.


10.28945/4340 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 199-234
Author(s):  
Kenneth Chukwujioke Agbim ◽  
Anthony Igwe

Aim/Purpose: This study seeks to investigate if participation in business association’s programs through the traditional and new media platforms influences family businesses in South Eastern Nigeria to diversify into similar or different businesses. Background: Before the advances in information and communication technology, businesses were carried on via the traditional media. The application of these advances has changed the way business communications and transactions are conducted globally in both family and non-family businesses. Businesses are adapting to today’s turbulent environment by opening similar or different businesses in the same or different locations that are hinged on the traditional and new media platforms. Nigerians are largely involved in social network through the traditional (face-to-face contact) and new media (e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram). Moreover, in spite of the commonplaceness of family businesses in Nigeria, these businesses still experience weak diversification, bankruptcy and loss of socio-emotional wealth. Consequent upon the foregoing, this paper specifically investigates if involvement in social network via the traditional media (i.e., participation in business association’s meetings, workshops, seminars) and the new media (i.e., participation in the business association’s interactive sessions on trending business issues through the association’s online social platform like WhatsApp, Twitter), influence family businesses in South Eastern Nigeria to diversify into similar or different businesses. Methodology: The study adopted a qualitative methodology. The qualitative data were generated via interview involving 30 purposively selected businesses from South Eastern Nigeria. This comprises 15 family businesses each that have respectively adopted related and unrelated diversification strategies. Two respondents (i.e., the business owner and a top level manager) each were drawn from the selected businesses. In all, 60 respondents were interviewed. Since the unit of analysis is the family business, the interview transcriptions from all the respondents were subjected to thematic content analysis on the basis of the family businesses. Contribution: Active involvement and participation in all the meetings, discussions, workshops and seminars of the social network via the traditional and new media platforms facilitates the adoption of related or unrelated diversification in family businesses. Moreover, the adoption of similar social network platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter in all the relationships among and between employees and managers, and the transactions of the businesses is one of the key factors for achieving successful related or unrelated diversification in family businesses. Findings: In spite of the risky nature of the business environment, the adoption of related diversification strategies is significantly influenced by resources such as business consultancy services garnered through the traditional and new media platforms of the social network. Also, family businesses that are actively involved in a social network where the actors interact through the traditional and new media are influenced by the resources acquired to consider adopting unrelated diversification. These resources include: better understanding of the nature of business challenges, environments and experiences; and different lines of businesses. Thus, the traditional and new media platforms are complementary in their roles. Recommendations for Practitioners: Family business owner-managers could use the findings to develop related or unrelated strategies for diversifying into existing or new markets. This can be through the localization of manufacturing plant, improvement of product packaging, sitting of sales outlet closer to the consumers, introduction of lower prices for products/services, introduction of new and better ways of service delivery, or development of more compelling promotion strategies. Recommendation for Researchers: As a veritable guide, this study could guide future researchers in the formulation of their objectives, selection of instrument for data collection and respondents, and adoption of method of data analysis. Impact on Society: Successful diversification suggests the establishment of new or more businesses. Consequently, these new or more family businesses are expected to translate to more employment opportunities and by extension reduction in unemployment and poverty rates in the society. Future Research: Further studies should be carried out to enhance the development of family businesses, contribute to the existing literature and ensure the generalization of the findings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitor Braga ◽  
Aldina Correia ◽  
Alexandra Braga ◽  
Sofia Lemos

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusto Dalmoro Costa ◽  
Aurora Carneiro Zen ◽  
Everson dos Santos Spindler

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katiuska Cabrera Suarez ◽  
Elena Rivo-López ◽  
Santiago Lago-Peñas ◽  
Santiago Lago-Peñas

Nowadays, family businesses, the predominant form of business worldwide, face an increasingly changing environment boosted by megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, artificial intelligence, climate change and sustainability. Along with this, are factors that play at a firm level such as stricter rules concerning transparency and compliance or the increasing importance of Corporate Social Responsibil- ity (CSR). Therefore, new strategies and organizational changes are necessary to allow for greater adaptation to the new context. This special issue provides insights on these questions from a variety of perspectives.                                           The work of Hernández-Linares and López-Fernán- dez expands the current thinking on this process of adaptation by exploring the combined effects of three strategic orientations (entrepreneurial, learning, and market orientations) on the family firm ́s performance. The authors provide interesting contributions in terms of highlighting the importance of strategic orientations for value creation in enterprise organizations. They also provide empirical evidence that the family char- acter of the firm determines the relationship between strategic orientations and business performance, and offer some results on the effect of market orientation on firm performance in family firms versus non-family firms.                                                                                                 Those differences in strategies are further ana- lysed within the setting of the business dimension in which financial and economic decisions are made. The contribution by Terrón-Ibáñez, Gómez-Miranda and Rodríguez-Ariza, discusses the influence of that di- mension in their performance, comparing family and non-family firms. This interesting analysis of financial performance provides useful results. The study showsthat, unlike non-family firms, there is an inverted U- shaped relationship between the size of family SMEs and the value of certain economic–financial indicators, such as the return on assets, operating margin and employee productivity. This means that although the increase in the dimension of the family organizations is positively related to its performance, there are lim- its from which the value of certain economic–financial indicators can be negatively affected.                                                                                                                                                           The next paper contributes to the discussion of the family business’s role in the private health sector. Reyes-Santías, Rivo-López and Villanueva-Villar, set out to identify the historical evolution of the family business in this sector, attempting to determine the variation and its contribution to the private health sector during the 1995-2010 period. The findings of this discussion provide family firms with an almost 60% survival level in this sector. Along with this, the au- thors provide some guidelines for future research con- cerning this higher degree of survival, why family firms are leading the concentration process taking place in the sector, as well as their strategies for super-spe- cialization in the services offered especially by family businesses in healthcare.         The effect of family ownership and the character- istics of the board of directors on the implementation level of Enterprise Risk Management is an important topic. The article by Otero-González, Rodríguez-Gil, Durán-Santomil and Tamayo-Herrera certainly adds to the discussion. In particular, their research shows that family businesses are less interested in implementing ERM, except when shareholders have greater control of the company and when professional investors are present in the company. Besides, the importance of a board of directors’ characteristics of in terms of risk taking is confirmed by observing that larger boards en- courage risk managers to be hired.                                                                                                                                                           The paper by Lorenzo-Gómez looks at the barriers to change that are specific to the characteristics of family business, considering both the barriers that af- fect the perception of the need to undertake changes and the availability of resources to face those chang- es, and the barriers to implementing these changes within already consolidated organizations, where new routines are created to replace the existing ones. Thefindings suggest that the factors affecting these barri- ers include the generation at the head of the family business; the influence of interest groups, particularly in terms of the duality between the company and the family; and the participation level of professionals from outside the family.                                                                                         The final contribution by Aragon-Amonarriz and Iturrioz-Landart offers an interesting discussion on how family-responsible ownership practices enhance social responsibility in small and medium family firms. Their results reveal the positive relationships between the elements of family-responsible ownership in terms of succession management, financial resource allocation, professionalism and social responsibility, and ultimate- ly with the socially responsible behaviour of family SMEs.                                                                                                                 The challenges surrounding family business owners and the nuances around strategic and organizational decision making are together an area ripe for future research. The editors look forward to seeing future de- velopments on these topics that pay special attention to the influence of family characteristics and dynamics on the strategic and organizational change of family firms, and that draw on both quantitative and quali- tative research methodologies for the wider develop- ment of the field. Acknowledgements. The papers published in this issue were presented at the “II Workshop of Family Business: Strategic and Organizational Change” at Ourense, Galicia, Spain, June, 13-14, 2019. The conference was organized by GEN group research (http:// infogen.webs.uvigo.es/) and the Chair of Family Business of the University of Vigo, and was sponsored by the AGEF (Galician Family Business Association), Inditex Group, IEF (Spanish Family Firm Institute), and with ECOBAS group as collaborator. Thanks for their invaluable support. We are also very thankful of all other participants at the conference.   Katiuska Cabrera Suárez,  University of Las Palmas Elena Rivo-López, co-director of the Chair of Family Business, University of Vigo Santiago Lago-Peñas, co-director of the Chair of Family Business, University of Vigo    


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Collins ◽  
Ken McCracken ◽  
Barbara Murray ◽  
Martin Stepek

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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira C. Harris

This commentary adopts a cross-disciplinary framework to discuss possible influences of both family and ethnicity on business performance in the marketplace. Both family and ethnicity are viewed as “upstream factors” that may help a business gain a favorable identity with potential stakeholders. Family businesses that have an ethnic background in common with customers, employees, and suppliers may receive preferential treatment. Communities may patronize a business simply because of an associated group identity. Thus, ethnic collectivism may alter some assumptions about family businesses and how they compete.


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