Business Commons^™

Family Business Leadership Succession, Elissa Ann Rogers

Journal of Fundamental & Applied Business Research

Following a leadership succession from one generation of family leadership to the next, family businesses often fail. When family businesses do not have a comprehensive succession plan, they have low sustainability for subsequent generations of leadership. This qualitative, multiple-case study explored methods for reducing family business failure following generational succession. The researcher collected data via semi-structured interviews. The themes that emerged from the data include (a) the reason for succession, (b) necessary leadership characteristics, (c) the succession process, (d) resistance to succession, and (e) the value of external help. Key recommendations include the value of starting the succession planning process …

Moving Forward By Looking Back: How Family Firms Create Competitive Advantage By Embracing Their History, Adam Goldman

Dissertations

Family businesses are the engine that drives the United States economy. While extensive implications have been made in the literature about the advantages or disadvantages of family-owned businesses compared to non-family-owned businesses, the focus of this study was to show how small to medium-sized family-owned firms (FF SMEs) based in the United States can use their unique history to create a competitive advantage. Drawing on imprint theory and the resource-based view (RBV), this history-informed study helped identify the impact that founder imprints, business traditions, and storytelling have on the business performance of FF SMEs. Using quantitative methods, the findings of …

An Est Approach To Entrepreneurial Exit In Chinese Family Business: A Case Study Of H Company, Lidian Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Previous entrepreneurial exit literature has mostly followed a feature-oriented logic by summarizing the impact of industry and company characteristics and entrepreneurs’ personal traits on entrepreneurial exit decisions, disregarding the decision-making process of entrepreneurial exit and the role of key events in advancing the process. This thesis endeavors to explore the determining factors behind entrepreneurial exit decisions of family businesses and the dynamic decision-making process based on Event System Theory (EST) with a single-case study method and a feature-oriented and process-oriented approach.

This study has conducted an in-depth investigation into Company H, which possesses typical features of Chinese private family businesses. …

Family Ties: Impact Of Socioemotional Wealth And Succession On Real Earnings Management, Beth A. Flambures

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Private family businesses make up a significant portion of the world economy. While contributing to the larger macro environment, they also contribute critical resources to their communities and family units. Earnings management is a practice that is detrimental to future business viability. The motivation to use earnings management is different in family businesses as they have unique pressures and characteristics. Socioemotional wealth includes non-financial incentives exclusive to family businesses and is predicted to influence earnings management behavior. Succession is an event that is critical to all businesses, however, the pressure for generational transfer in family businesses can be greater due …

Leadership Adapted: Towards An Understanding Of How Western-Developed Leadership Theories Are Translated And Practiced In The Modern Arab Middle East, Derek R. Olson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how western-developed leadership theories are translated and practiced in the Modern Arab Middle East (MAME). Over the past century the notion of leadership has progressed through phases of understanding, definition, and practice. This evolution continues today and is no longer contained to the academic and practice-oriented institutions of North America and Europe. Through western-styled educational institutions and professional industries, western-developed leadership theories have stretched around the globe, including the MAME. While this is known, what is much less understood is how these theories are adopted and adapted. This study’s objective is to …

Changes In Decision-Making Authority When Chaebol Firms Grow: From The Perspective Of Non-Family Managers, Changhwan Kim

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

What changes do non-family managers in large family firms such as chaebols (Korean conglomerates) observe in their decision-making authority when their organizations grow? The intuitive expectation is that non-family managers' decision-making authority will grow in conjunction with the successful expansion of the business and growth of the firm.

Based on 45 in-depth semistructured interviews with non-family managers from a wide range of chaebol firms, this study analyzes how non-family managers perceive the change in their decision-making authority and the cause of this change.

The findings indicate that respondents perceive that their decision-making authority does not increase with the growth of …

Family Business: Innovation And Tradition In A Global Economy, Francesca Fornasari

Theses

Eighty-five percent of Italian companies are run as a family business. They are considered vital for Italian economy. The purpose of this thesis is to study how these companies challenge the global market to understand if the globalization can cause them disadvantages or benefits. The study explains what a family business is and who are the components that can be part of it. Then it focuses on the structure of the firms, how the families run their businesses and organize the tasks between the family members. This thesis considers the strategies of innovation adopted by the family to remain competitive …

Capital Structure In The Family Firm: Exploring The Relationship Between Financial Sources And Family Dynamics, Diego G. Velez

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

How a company structures its capital greatly affects its strategic options and its strategic decisions according to contemporary thinking. However, while there is ample literature on how publicly held companies’ capital should be structured, less is known about private companies. Additionally, one or more members of a single family typically own the majority of private companies, and unlike public companies, family dynamics influence these firms’ non-financial and financial goals and strategic decisions. This overlap of family dynamics into the business arena complicates conventional approaches or at least makes conventional approaches more difficult to apply.

This dissertation focuses on privately held, …

The Case Study Of Outstanding Store Fixtures, Heather Soma-Hauer

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

The decisions that businesses are facing are all similar, regardless of industry. But these decisions are felt more strongly in small businesses. The Case study of Outstanding Store Fixtures (OSF) is a decision based case that allows students the opportunity to dive into the decision making process for a small business. This case and teaching note focus on the real decisions that small, family owned businesses face every day. The details of the case will target the decision making process, allowing the reader to arrive at what they feel is the best possible solution. While the case focuses on the …

Measuring Family Business Performance: A Holistic, Idiosyncratic Approach, Ralph I. Williams Jr

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

For any type of organization, performance represents the measure of outcomes, goals, and aspirations vital to various organization stakeholders; thus performance is an important research variable (Seijts, Latham, Tasa, & Latham, 2004, Simon, 1964). Family businesses are different from non-family businesses in that the family subsystem and the business subsystem overlap and interact to form the family business system. The desired outcomes, goals, and aspirations of each family business are a product of its particular family and business sub-systems. Thus, in family business, especially privately owned entities, performance is of particular interest since families can set their goals in their …

Being Good For Goodness Sake: The Influence Of Family Involvement On Motivations To Engage In Small Business Social Responsibility, Whitney O. Peake, Philip E. Davis, Marcus Z. Cox

Faculty Publications

Small family and nonfamily firms are acknowledged to serve as important facilitators of social responsibility within their communities; however, both have received relatively little attention in the literature for these efforts or their motivation for undertaking them. Grounded in Enlightened Self-Interest (ESI) and intentions, we explore motivations for participation in socially responsible behaviors and the moderating effect of family involvement. We develop measures for small business social responsibility (SBSR), ESI, and SBSR intentions. Our analyses indicate positive direct effects exist for both SBSR intentions and ESI on engagement in SBSR. We find that family involvement strengthens the relationship between ESI …

Coping With Growth Transitions: The Case Of Chinese Family Businesses In Singapore, Wee-Liang Tan, Siew Tong Fock

Wee Liang TAN

Families control more than half of the corporations in East Asia. The contribution of family businesses to Asia's economic growth is predicated upon successfully growing their businesses. Many family businesses in East Asia, spanning countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, are Chinese owned and managed. Some claim that these businesses will never develop into full-fledged multinational enterprises because of their cultural heritage (Redding, 1990). However, some Chinese family businesses have successfully made the transition.This paper presents an in-depth study of five Chinese family businesses in Singapore that have successfully made the transition in growth and size …

Surviving Beyond A Third Generation, Andreas Raharso

Asian Management Insights

Family-owned businesses’ continued survival is unsure. Research indicates the most likely cause is their pursuit of professionalisation.

Strategically Aligning Family And Business Systems Using The Balanced Scorecard, Justin Craig, Ken Moores

Justin B. Craig

We take an integrated approach to align issues that influence the family and business, systems. Using innovation action research (Kaplan, 1998) we illustrate how the Balanced Scorecard, that includes reference to family business challenges can be introduced and used to assist family, members, board members and management in a third-generation Australian family-owned business. The process of scorecard development is discussed and the development of the core essence, vision, and mission statements, strategic objectives, measures and targets, which can be scrutinized by family, business stakeholders to ascertain consistency with the vision of the company, is outlined. We suggest, that, in the …

Championing Family Business Issues To Influence Public Policy: Evidence From Australia, Justin B. Craig, Ken Moores

Justin B. Craig

This paper proposes a strategy for the family firm sector to gain the attention of policy makers. The strategy builds through influencing social expectations, creating political issues, developing legislative actions which are subsequently implemented and regulated. To achieve this, we suggest that the family business sector must achieve salience as a community's definitive stakeholders in which capacity they possess, or are perceived to possess, attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. Propositions are advanced consistent with developing these attributes that collectively build a policy pathway from the societal benefits that family firms can provide by suggesting the building and management of …

The Influence Of Family Business Size On Management Activities, Styles And Characteristics, Matthew C. Sonfield, Robert N. Lussier

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This is an empirical study of family firm size, as measured by the number of employees, and the relationship of a firm’s size to a variety of management activities, styles, and characteristics. A statistical analysis of data drawn from 159 American family businesses indicates significant differences by size with regard to the number of nonfamily members in top management, use of outside advisors, time spent engaged in strategic management, use of sophisticated methods of financial management, proportion of women family members involved in firm management, and level of conflict between family members. Implications are offered for family firm owner-managers, for …

Dummy Boards And Bored Dummies: Changes Needed At Bauer Holdings, Justin Craig, James Bergmuller

Justin B. Craig

Frank Bauer rules Bauer Holdings by stealth and sees no reason why he should consider giving up his position as Chairman of the board. In this way, Frank is like many business leaders who have been involved in a multi-generational business since its founding. One of Frank's sons holds a position on the board and although Frank wants this son to eventually take over the business, the anointed son does not have the skills required or the passion to pursue the position. The third generation Bauers' are now questioning their involvement in the business and what role, if any, they …

The Effect Of Estate Taxes On Family Business: Survey Results, Joseph H. Astrachan, Roger Tutterow

Faculty Articles

A survey of 1,003 businesses examined the effect of estate taxes on family business behavior, including investment, employment, and strategic decisions. The results strongly suggest that estate taxes have marked effects on business behavior. These effects are more pronounced in larger firms where their potential impact is of a greater magnitude.