Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- File Type
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Business
Why Can’T A Family Business Be More Like A Nonfamily Business? Modes Of Professionalization In Family Firms, Alex Stewart, Michael A. Hitt
Why Can’T A Family Business Be More Like A Nonfamily Business? Modes Of Professionalization In Family Firms, Alex Stewart, Michael A. Hitt
Alex Stewart
The authors survey arguments that family firms should behave more like nonfamily firms and “professionalize.” Despite the apparent advantages of this transition, many family firms fail to do so or do so only partially. The authors reflect on why this might be so, and the range of possible modes of professionalization. They derive six ideal types: (a) minimally professional family firms; (b) wealth dispensing, private family firms; (c) entrepreneurially operated family firms; (d) entrepreneurial family business groups; (e) pseudoprofessional, public family firms; and (f) hybrid professional family firms. The authors conclude with suggestions for further research that is attentive to …
The Bigman Metaphor For Entrepreneurship: A "Library Tale" With Morals On Alternatives For Further Research, Alex Stewart
The Bigman Metaphor For Entrepreneurship: A "Library Tale" With Morals On Alternatives For Further Research, Alex Stewart
Alex Stewart
Melanesian Bigmanship (a meritocratic, enacted career of political-economic leadership) is recounted as an anthropological metaphor for entrepreneurship. This “library tale” has two purposes. The first is a demonstration of conceptual uses of ethnographies for developing grounded theory. Propositions are generated on entrepreneurial orientations and opportunity structures. Opportunities are seen to arise in the creation of linkages between spheres of exchange, or fields in which an object exchanges at different values. Entrepreneurial tactics, such as converting between spheres, call for skills in informal planning, astute use of timing, and networking. These “tactical” skills coexist with “moral” skills, in persuasiveness, the manipulation …
The Yin And Yang Of Kinship And Business: Complementary Or Contradictory Forces?, Alex Stewart, Michael A. Hitt
The Yin And Yang Of Kinship And Business: Complementary Or Contradictory Forces?, Alex Stewart, Michael A. Hitt
Alex Stewart
Are the social domains of kinship and business on balance complementary or contradictory? Do ventures that invest heavily in both – conventionally referred to as “family firms” – bear a net gain or net loss? We are scarcely the first to raise these questions. How then will we try to contribute to an answer? We try this in five ways, all of them based on previous literature. First, we develop the dichotomy of kinship and business by taking seriously the metaphor of yin and yang, merging it with the anthropological constructs of structural domains such as “domestic” and “public.” This …
A First Course In Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Part I, Alex Stewart
A First Course In Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Part I, Alex Stewart
Alex Stewart
This two-part article offers ideas for teaching students who are interested in entrepreneurship but unprepared for the widely-taught business plan course. Their lack of preparation is due less to a lack of business knowledge than it is to an awareness of their life and career needs and of the realities of entrepreneurial careers. Course content ideas are presented to help these students develop competencies in four areas: self-understanding, knowledge of entrepreneurial careers, a realistic sense of what ventures would work for them, and business-relevant creativity.
Artisans, Athletes, Entrepreneurs, And Other Skilled Exemplars Of The Way, Alex Stewart, Felissa Lee, Gregory N.P. Konz, S.J.
Artisans, Athletes, Entrepreneurs, And Other Skilled Exemplars Of The Way, Alex Stewart, Felissa Lee, Gregory N.P. Konz, S.J.
Alex Stewart
We introduce management and spirituality scholars to the “knack” passages from the c. 4th century B.C.E. text, the Zhuangzi. The knack passages are parables about low status figures, such as wheelwrights, furniture makers and cooks, whose actions offer insights into the spirituality of ordinary work and, we argue, of entrepreneurship. Such non-corporate settings are lesser-studied domains for spirituality. Ancient Chinese writings have been noticed by spirituality and management writers but we call for deeper scholarly textual attention. We seek also to model more attention to the renaissance in scholarship on classical China. More ambitiously, we hope to show that these …
A First Course In Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Part Ii, Alex Stewart
A First Course In Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Part Ii, Alex Stewart
Alex Stewart
No abstract provided.