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Family Businesses (family + businesses)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	76%

Selected Abstracts

Governing by Managing Identity Boundaries: The Case of Family Businesses

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 3 2008
Chamu Sundaramurthy
In this paper we illustrate how boundary theory can be a useful perspective to understand the dynamics of family businesses. We integrate insights from the family business literature with the work,family and identity boundary literatures to describe degrees of integration between the family and business identities in family firms and outline contingencies that influence this integration. We also develop the notion of "differential permeability" as a state of being both integrated and segmented on various aspects of identity and articulate costs and benefits to this state, as well as to high integration and high segmentation. Finally, we invoke the research on "boundary work" as a means of managing family business boundaries and conclude by outlining additional avenues of research that stem from using such a boundary theory lens. [source]

The Impact of Occupational Sex Segregation on Family Businesses: The Case of American Harness Racing

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2006
Elizabeth A. Larsen
Previous research on occupational sex segregation agrees that the workplace is not an isolated world but instead influences, and is influenced by, other spheres of social life. Identifying specific social factors both internal and external to the workplace, and how these may interact, can provide deeper insights into how occupational sex segregation is created and maintained. This study focuses on individual family businesses in American harness horse racing, a previously unexamined and highly sex-segregated industry, and provides insights in how vertical and horizontal sex segregation may develop in family businesses. The findings show how the belief that married couples cannot debate and resolve work-related conflicts without undue strain on their personal relationship leads some of these couples to organize their work into gendered tasks and workspaces, contributing to the maintenance of vertical segregation in the trainer position. The implications for segregation of other solutions, such as operating separate businesses, or working for another business, are less clear. [source]

Leveraging Family-Based Brand Identity to Enhance Firm Competitiveness and Performance in Family Businesses,

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008
Justin B. Craig
Drawing on the family-embeddedness perspective on entrepreneurship and the resource-based-view of the firm, we investigate how the promotion of family-based brand identity influences competitive orientation (customer versus product) and firm performance in family businesses. Applying structural equation modeling to survey data collected from leaders of 218 family businesses, we demonstrate that developing a family-based brand identity positively contributes to firm performance (growth and profitability) indirectly, via a customer-centric orientation. In contrast, attempts to leverage family-based brand identity via a product-centric orientation do not impact firm performance. Our results suggest that family-based brand identity enhances the family business' ability to persuade customers to make purchasing decisions based on the perceived attributes of the seller. As a result, we contribute to the discussions centered on how to optimize the intricate synergy between family and business. [source]

Examining the Link Between "Familiness" and Performance: Can the F-PEC Untangle the Family Business Theory Jungle?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 6 2008
Matthew W. Rutherford
Family business research appears to be caught in a "jungle" of competing theories in regards to familiness and performance. This study provides a further empirical examination into that relationship. We employ a family influence scale (the familiness-power, experience, and culture scale [F-PEC]) presented by Klein, Astrachan, and Smyrnios in an attempt to assess the relationship between familiness and performance in 831 family businesses. The resulting regression analysis adds to the current state of the literature by demonstrating significant and interesting results. Specifically, familiness showed associations with revenue, capital structure, growth, and perceived performance; however, the relationships were both positive and negative, thus casting doubt upon the F-PEC as a vehicle for untangling the jungle. We conclude with discussion and implications. [source]

Governing by Managing Identity Boundaries: The Case of Family Businesses

Entrepreneurial Management and Governance in Family Firms: An Introduction

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2004
Lloyd P. Steier
Many organizations, ranging from small entrepreneurial start-ups to large, multi-business and multi-national enterprises, exhibit a family dimension. Although there is much evidence that this familial dimension is pervasive in organizing economic activities, it remains understudied. The articles in this special issue further our understanding of family businesses and how they might be usefully managed and organized at operational and policy levels. They examine important topics,management succession, agency costs in family versus non-family firms, the effects of culture, and family elites in rent-seeking societies,and improve our understanding of the role of family in entrepreneurial wealth creation at both firm and societal levels. Importantly, these papers further our understanding of the contingencies and contexts wherein family based approaches to organizing enterprise might yield advantages or disadvantages. [source]

The Impact of Occupational Sex Segregation on Family Businesses: The Case of American Harness Racing

The Impacts of LBOs on the Performance of Acquired Firms: The French Case

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING, Issue 5-6 2002
Phillippe Desbrières
This paper investigates the financial characteristics and changes in performance of French companies involved in a leveraged buy,out. The empirical study covers a sample of 161 MBOs in France from 1988 to 1994. The acquired firms outperform their counterparts in the same sector of activity before and after the buy,out. However, unlike findings concerning LBOs in the USA and the UK, the performance of French firms falls after the operation is completed. This downturn in performance seems to be less detrimental to former subsidiaries of groups than to former family businesses. [source]

Community Social Responsibility and Its Consequences for Family Business Performance,

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008
Linda S. Niehm
Family-centered businesses may have unique perspectives of socially responsible behavior due to family involvement and ties to the community. This research explored the antecedents and consequences of community social responsibility (CSR) for family firms operating in small and rural markets. Using a national sample from the 2000 wave of the National Family Business Survey (NFBS), researchers profiled family business operators' (n = 221) to determine if their CSR orientation contributed to family business performance. Enlightened self interest and social capital perspectives provide a framework for elaborating the role of CSR in sustaining family businesses in changing small communities. Results indicate that three dimensions, commitment to the community, community support, and sense of community, account for 43 percent of the variation in family business operators' CSR. Size of the business was significantly related to family firms' ability to give and receive community support. Further, commitment to the community was found to significantly explain perceived family business performance while community support explained financial performance. Findings suggest that socially responsible business behaviors can indeed contribute to the sustainability of family businesses in small rural communities. [source]

Leveraging Family-Based Brand Identity to Enhance Firm Competitiveness and Performance in Family Businesses,

Issues in Growing a Family Business: A Strategic Human Resource Model

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2001
Sandra W. King
The conceptual literature on family businesses suggests that family businesses have difficulty managing their human resources, especially when it concerns a family member or the transition from the founder to the successor. The authors empirically examined the assumptions raised in the conceptual literature regarding whether family businesses were experiencing human resource problems in growing their business and what factors enabled or constrained the ability of their businesses to grow. The authors used in-depth interviewing to collect data in order to emphasize the depth of the issue. Using content analysis with subject matter experts coding the data, the authors sought to mine the richness of data. Finally, the authors analyzed the data using Elliot Jaques' Stratified Systems Theory as a model to examine the strategic human resource issues and to draw some tentative conclusions. [source]

The Phenomenon of Substantive Conflict in the Family Firm: A Cross-Generational Study

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2001
Peter S. Davis
This study investigates the influence that family members exert on the extent and frequency of substantive conflict within family firms across generations as a result of their familial relationship (distance) with the owner/manager of the firm and the positions these family members occupy in the family work group and social (non-work) group. Following Beckhard and Dyer (1983), the construct of substantive conflict was vested in four key issues pertinent to family firms: (1) ownership continuity or change; (2) executive leadership continuity or change; (3) power and asset distribution; and (4) management's vision for the role of the firm in society. The results establish a relationship between conflict in a family business and the composition of the family's work group, non-work (social) group, and the extensiveness of the family's social interactions. The relationships between conflict and family influence were found to be moderated by the generations (first, second, third, or later) among involved family businesses. [source]