Law and HRM Challenges in Generational Transition of Family Firms

This chapter examines some of the most relevant HRM problems in generational transition of family firms and proposes a number of legal instruments capable of resolving them. Use of corporations as vehicles to run the family business is examined, also with respect to consequences of this choice in business transition. Definition and “protection” of family roles within the firm are observed. Patrimonial issues are compared to personal issues and their interplay is explained by reference to five different scenarios. Last, the possibility to “select”, so to say, the law applicable to one's succession under Regulation (EU) no 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 is explored. At the end, it is concluded that even if HRM in family business shows informality along with formality in designing business practices, generational transition of family firms requires structuring and needs be planned, appropriately and in detail, in advance.

Ownership Control Eats Strategy and Culture for Lunch: The Case for Future Ownership Development Prior to Ownership Transition

A review of the academic research and practitioner best practices literature highlights how little we still know about the role that ownership control plays in the continuity of founder-controlled and family-controlled firms. Founder-controlled firms have been shown to financially outperform other firms. Allowing for more nuanced findings given the heterogeneity of family businesses, a similar advantage has been found in family-controlled firms around the world when their performance is contrasted with that of management-controlled firms. Research points to generational and family participation effects that may contribute to a gradual decline in this advantage over the generations. Still, controlling families of family firms face the prospect of leading a family-controlled firm across generations that continues to derive the financial and noneconomic benefits of such control or to squander that opportunity by not having ownership control be a fundamental consideration in their owners’ strategy when facing a generational transition. Statutory ownership control, psychological ownership and family unity approaches are all considered in an exploration of a future ownership development perspective and approaches that controlling families can take to preserve ownership control and the resulting comparative advantage evidenced in higher financial and noneconomic returns over generations.

Law and HRM Challenges in Generational Transition of Family Firms

This chapter examines some of the most relevant HRM problems in generational transition of family firms and proposes a number of legal instruments capable of resolving them. Use of corporations as vehicles to run the family business is examined, also with respect to consequences of this choice in business transition. Definition and “protection” of family roles within the firm are observed. Patrimonial issues are compared to personal issues and their interplay is explained by reference to five different scenarios. Last, the possibility to “select”, so to say, the law applicable to one's succession under Regulation (EU) no 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 is explored. At the end, it is concluded that even if HRM in family business shows informality along with formality in designing business practices, generational transition of family firms requires structuring and needs be planned, appropriately and in detail, in advance.

The Rise and Fall of the Northern Cities Shift

Recent acoustic analyses examining English in the North American great lakes region show that the area’s characteristic vowel chain shift, the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), is waning. Attitudinal analyses suggest that the NCS has lost prestige in some NCS cities, such that it is no longer regarded as ‘standard American English’. Socio-cultural and temporal accounts of capital loss and dialect decline remain unexplored, however. This paper examines F1, F2, and diphthongal quality of TRAP produced by 36 White speakers (18 women) in one NCS city—Lansing, Michigan—over the course of the 20th century. I show that TRAP realization is conditioned by gender and birth year, such that women led the change towards NCS realizations into the middle of the 20th century and then away from them thereafter. I discuss these findings against the backdrop of deindustrialization during this time of linguistic reorganization in Lansing. I show that as the regional industry—(auto) manufacturing—loses prestige, so does the regional variant—raised TRAP. This paper adds to our understanding of North American dialectology the importance of deindustrialization and the Baby Boomers to Generation Xer generational transition to our discussion of regional dialect maintenance.

Geografía y docencia en el legado del profesor José Estébanez Álvarez = Geography and Teaching in the Legacy of Professor José Estébanez Álvarez

El profesor D. José Estébanez Álvarez desarrolló a lo largo de treinta años una fructífera carrera docente e investigadora en el campo geográfico, aunque destaca su producción científica en el campo de la geografía urbana nunca abandonó otras ramas geográficas. Los espacios agrarios ocupan un lugar importante tanto en sus publicaciones como en sus proyectos de investigación. Su aporte fundamental al campo geográfico fue, en un momento de transición generacional y de reflexión metodológica en la Geografía española, la introducción de las nuevas corrientes geográficas que estaban acaeciendo allende nuestras fronteras, como son la Geografía de la Percepción y la Geografía Cuantitativa, temas en los que fue pionero en España. También tuvieron un gran peso los temas epistemológicos, siendo un tema recurrente a lo largo de sus trabajos. Como docente, también reflexionó sobre la docencia en Geografía, no sólo en los ámbitos universitarios, en los que la ejercía, sino también en la formación secundaria.AbstractProfessor D. José Estébanez Álvarez developed over 30 years a fruitful teaching and research career in the geographical field, although his major scientific production in the field of urban geography never left other geographical branches. Agricultural spaces occupy an important place in their publications and in their research projects. His fundamental contribution to the geographical field was, at a time of generational transition and methodological reflection in Spanish Geography, the introduction of the new geographical currents that were happening beyond our borders, such as the Geography of Perception and Quantitative Geography, issues in those who pioneered in Spain. Epistemological issues also had a great weight, being a recurring theme throughout his work. As a teacher, he also reflected on teaching in Geography, not only in university settings, where he was practicing, but also in secondary education.