Business Commons^™

New Insights On Economic Theories Of The Family Firm, James J. Chrisman, Chevy-Hanqing Fang, Silvio Vismara, Zhenyu Wu

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

Research attention to family firms has significantly increased in recent years, with a growing application of economic theories such as agency theory and resource-based theory to explain differences between family firms and nonfamily firms and heterogeneity among family firm populations. Despite this progress, the formulation of an economic theory of family business remains notably absent. Merely applying existing economic theories of the firm to the realm of family business is inadequate, as these general theories fail to incorporate the idiosyncratic aspects of family firms, such as the pursuit of socioemotional wealth. This paper seeks to advance economic theories specific to …

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 …

Impact Of Management Polyphony In Family Business: A Review, Ali S. Cetinkaya, Serife Sogancioglu

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

The link between family and family-owned enterprise has persisted for generations within the framework of family, ownership, management, and business. Family-owned companies are created in order to generate revenue and preserve the family's tradition. With the proper management strategy, family businesses can survive and be passed down to future generations. In family businesses, the founders and family member managers are the only ones who carry out main management tasks including planning, organizing, coordinating, leading, supervising, and controlling. Management polyphony can happen in a family-owned firm when more than one family member is designated as the manager. Although managerial polyphony may …

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 …

The Process Of The Intergenerational Succession Of Leadership In A Family Business, Bojan Dolar, Roberto Biloslavo

Economic and Business Review

Background and objective: In this paper, we explore first-generation leadership succession in family businesses which, despite extensive literature on the subject, remains insufficiently understood. Our goal is to acquire new knowledge and understanding regarding this phenomenon with a view to making it more effective.

Method: The basis of our research is a qualitative multiple case study that includes six medium-sized manufacturing family businesses. We conducted semi-structured interviews with incumbents, successors and family representatives, and analysed the data obtained using the content analysis method.

Results: The data analysis and interpretation led to a definition of the category “The way ahead: the …

Vying For And Forgoing Visibility: Female Next Gen Leaders In Family Business With Male Successors, Martina Brophy, Maura Mcadam, Eric Clinton

Articles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the identity work undertaken by female next generation to navigate (in)visibility in family businesses with male successors. To enhance understanding of gendered identity work in family businesses, the authors offer important insights into how female next generation use (in)visibility to establish legitimacy and exercise power and humility in partnership with male next generation in their family business. Design/methodology/approach – This empirical qualitative paper draws upon in-depth interviews with 14 next generation female leaders. Findings – This study offers a model to show how female next generation establish their legitimacy amongst …

Succession Planning Strategies In Polish Family-Owned Businesses, Jan Marcin Klaczak

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Family-owned businesses contribute to social and economic advancement, yet many business owners struggle with employing succession planning during intergenerational leadership transitions. Family business leaders are concerned with identifying effective succession planning strategies for the leadership transition to the next generation for business continuity. Grounded in Rothwell’s seven-step model for succession planning, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore succession planning strategies Polish family business leaders used for the leadership transition to the next generation. Three Polish family business leaders who successfully implemented succession planning in their organizations participated in the study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, …

Succession Planning Strategies In Polish Family-Owned Businesses, Jan Marcin Klaczak

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Family-owned businesses contribute to social and economic advancement, yet many business owners struggle with employing succession planning during intergenerational leadership transitions. Family business leaders are concerned with identifying effective succession planning strategies for the leadership transition to the next generation for business continuity. Grounded in Rothwell’s seven-step model for succession planning, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore succession planning strategies Polish family business leaders used for the leadership transition to the next generation. Three Polish family business leaders who successfully implemented succession planning in their organizations participated in the study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, …

Understanding Family Firm Intentions To Use Private Equity: A Theory Of Planned Behaviour Perspective, Chris Graves, Pi-Shen Seet, Anneleen Michiels

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Although past research suggests that family firms are less likely to use private equity (PE) financing, further research is required to identify the underlying reasons for such behaviour. Using the theory of planned behaviour and based on the analysis of data collected from 254 family firms, we identify the factors that explain a family firm's intentions to use PE. Family owners are more likely to plan to use PE when they have a favourable attitude toward PE, their intended succession strategy involves relinquishing control by selling the business sometime in the future, and they have a good understanding of PE.

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. …

Chinese Clan Culture And Its Influence On Family Business Ownership, Jiameng Cheng, Yanke Dai, Lin Shu, Haichun Ye

Perspectives@SMU

Research shows that, in China, business owners who hail from provinces with high clan cultural influence are more likely to share business ownership with family members

Family Business Leadership Succession, Elissa A. Rogers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Family businesses frequently experience business failure following succession from the first generation. Family businesses that lack effective succession plans have low sustainability beyond the second or third generations of family leadership. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how to reduce family business failure following generational succession. Three theoretical models were included in the conceptual framework: (a) Lewin’s three-step change model, (b) Bass’s full range of leadership model, and (c) Rumelt’s strategic kernel. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and internal documents relevant to the succession process. Six themes emerged: (a) reason for succession, (b) necessary …

Growing Niche Business Through Innovation: A Family Run Open Farm In Ireland, Trudie Murray, Fred Creedon, Aisling Conwaylenihan

Dept. of Management & Enterprise Conference Material

This case study presents an analysis of Leahy’s Open Farm, a family business that has continuously reinvented itself, since its launch in 1996. The open-farm industry in Ireland is a niche that faces many regulatory, organisational and economic challenges. This case study presents an overview of the challenges and potential for this growing market. Challenges include; rising insurance costs (33% increase) and dealing with (50% reduction in revenue in 2020) and recovering from the economic impact of COVID-19 restrictions. Leahy’s have been able to develop the business by adding new revenue streams, nurturing employee skills, harnessing their competency base and …

Growing Niche Business Through Innovation: A Family Run Open Farm In Ireland, Trudie Murray, Fred Creedon, Aisling Conwaylenihan

Conference Papers

This case study presents an analysis of Leahy’s Open Farm, a family business that has continuously reinvented itself, since its launch in 1996. The open-farm industry in Ireland is a niche that faces many regulatory, organisational and economic challenges. This case study presents an overview of the challenges and potential for this growing market. Challenges include; rising insurance costs (33% increase) and dealing with (50% reduction in revenue in 2020) and recovering from the economic impact of COVID-19 restrictions. Leahy’s have been able to develop the business by adding new revenue streams, nurturing employee skills, harnessing their competency base and …

Diseño De Un Prototipo De Sistema De Información Empresarial Para La Gestión Del Conocimiento En Una Mipyme Familiar Del Sector Ferretero En Bogotá, Nicolás Méndez Jiménez, Jonhatan Stiven Olarte Forero

Ingeniería Industrial

En Colombia las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas - MiPymes constituyen más del 95% del total de negocios establecidos y absorben más del 85% del empleo total en la mayoría de los países de la región (Banco Interamericano para el Desarrollo, 2010); el 65% de estas empresas son familiares, pero solo el 13% logra sobrevivir a primer cambio generacional. Entre otros aspectos, porque la gestión del conocimiento y el manejo de la información en estas organizaciones familiares se ve centralizado por la primera generación de la empresa: el(los) Fundador(es). La teoría de la gestión del conocimiento promueve que este solo …

Succession Planning Strategies Within Family Firms, Brent Alan Muckridge

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 70% of second-generation family firm successors are likely to close the family firm post succession due to succession process-related issues. Predecessors and family business owners need to understand the impact the succession process has on the family firm’s socioemotional wealth, family legacy, and longevity. Grounded in the social exchange theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore succession strategies predecessors in family firms employ for the succession planning process. The participants were six family members from three family firms, including the successor for each family firm, who used succession planning strategies. Data were collected from …

Succession Planning Strategies In Family Businesses, Vivian Akosua Dwumor Amanquah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Only one-third of family businesses remain operational into the second generation and approximately one-eighth into the third generation. Succession planning is critical to family-owned businesses, as most businesses will collapse moving to the fourth generation and beyond. Grounded in the family systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies family business leaders use to implement a succession plan. The participants included six senior executives from three family businesses in Ghana who implemented successful strategies for succession planning. The data sources were semistructured interviews and a review of organizational documents, including statutes; articles of incorporation, …

Seeking A Perfect Match: The Effect Of Spousal Capital On Performance Of Family Firms, Xi Yang

Theses and Dissertations

The research about family business has received increasing attention. However, the research that focuses on the effect of owner-managers marriage on family firm performance is scarce. In this study, I argue that the family business manager's spouse can affect firm performance through firm-level and individual-level channels. First, I propose that a family business's firm performance is influenced by owner-managers marriage in terms of spousal human, social, and financial capital based on a family capital topology—a firm-level lens. I build a conceptual model of spousal capital in a family business and develop hypotheses. Further, by integrating the complementary needs theory of …

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 …

Succession Challenges In Family Businesses From The First To The Second Generation, Natalie Nye

Business: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Family businesses are the backbone of the world economy creating two-thirds of the global GDP (Family Firm Institute, 2017). In the U.S. alone over half of GDP is accounted for from family businesses (Vera and Dean, 2005). Although the family business sector has been more thoroughly investigated over the past years (Chalus-Sauvannet, Deschamps & Cisneros, 2016), there are still many areas that require further efforts. Among these topics, succession planning plays a crucial role for the family business continuity and renewal. It is estimated that more than 70 percent of family owned businesses to not survive the transition from founder …

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 …

Commentary: Where Does The Talent Pools Of Smes Come From?, T. Mandy Tham

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Assistant Professor of Finance Mandy Tham explored how ‘family members’ is defined could affect the size of talent pool for SMEs and family businesses, and suggested some criteria for the selection of family members to be nurtured for the SMEs and family businesses.

Internacionalización De La Empresa Maxclean Ltda, Andrés Javier Gutiérrez Guerra, Sara Valentina Gómez Prieto, Sharon Nicole Daza Zapata

Finanzas y Comercio Internacional

El proyecto de investigación se enfoca en la internacionalización de la empresa Maxclean LTDA por medio de las siguientes teorías: Teoría de los tres círculos, Teoría de internacionalización de Michael Porter y la teoría ecléctica de Dunning que se verán reflejadas en el referente teórico. Teniendo en cuenta como objetivo realizar un plan estratégico que permita identificar los factores de éxito para la internacionalización de la empresa Maxclean LTDA a través de, una investigación de mercados potenciales, un análisis del entorno del mercado y un plan de acción. Se realizó este proyecto por medio de una investigación de tipo descriptiva …

Pursuing Quality, Zara Salahuddin, Arif Salahuddin

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

Zara and Arif Salahuddin of Bismillah Biryani exchange views on growing a family business and prioritising product quality.

Investing In Service, Andre Huber

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

Andre Huber of Huber’s Butchery looks at how family values have formed a cornerstone of their service vision.

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 …

A Socioemotional Wealth Perspective On Innovativeness And Performance Of Family Businesses., Vasiliki Kosmidou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a theoretical and empirical examination of the relationships among socioemotional wealth, innovativeness, and performance in family firms. Building on the Behavioral Agency Theory’s predictions that socioemotional wealth of family firms may affect their strategic decision making both positively and negatively, this study theoretically develops and tests a research model that aims at understanding the nuanced influences of different socioemotional wealth dimensions on firm innovativeness and performance. Specifically, the study hypothesizes that a family’s socioemotional wealth affects the firm’s innovativeness and performance both negatively, in the case of internal socioemotional wealth and positively, in the case of external …

Understanding The Role Of Social Capital On Performance In Family Firms., Mahshid Jessri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One important form of social capital is family social capital, which is mainly the relationship among family members in family business. In this dissertation, we utilize two perspectives of innovativeness and network mobilization to study the relationship between family social capital and firm performance. In the first study, we examine family social capital as a multidimensional construct, and study the relationship between the three aspects of structural, cognitive, and relational family social capital. The relationship between relational social capital and performance is studied through the lens of network mobilization, and the model investigates how family firm identity alters this relationship, …

Sustaining A Family Business Beyond The Second Generation, Donna Wells Austin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A significant number of funeral homes in the United States are family-owned businesses. These family-owned funeral businesses contribute to society throughout generations to create wealth, provide employment opportunities, and serve the communities that surround them. The purpose of this descriptive multiple case study was to explore strategies that leaders of family-owned funeral business owners in the eastern region of the United States used for intergenerational succession planning. Game theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 3 family business owners and review of the family businesses' professional association websites and family historical documents. …

Little Things That Count: A Call For Organizational Research On Microbusinesses, Alice M. Brawley, Cynthia L.S. Pury

Management Faculty Publications

The purpose of this Incubator is to encourage organizational researchers to attend to the most common type of business in the United States—the microbusiness. After defining and describing these businesses, we propose research questions on defining and managing performance, organizational citizenship, and work–family conflict in this novel business setting.