2019

The Role of Organizational and individual Identities in Succession Planning in Family Businesses

Not Yet Published

2014

Organizational Crises in Family Firms: The Effects on Intergenerational Innovation

Francesco, Barbera - Stetson University
Stamm, Isabell - University of California, Berkeley
DeWitt,Rocki-Lee - University of Vermont

The Development of an Entrepreneurial Legacy: Exploring the Role of Anticipated Futures in Transgenerational Entrepreneurship

Family Business Review

June 14, 2018

Entrepreneurial legacies play an important role in transgenerational entrepreneurship, yet little is known about their nature and development. Through a multilayered analysis of narratives drawn from three generations of a single business family, we document that entrepreneurial legacies feature both stable and fluid elements, and that forward-looking components in family storytelling—which we refer to as “anticipated futures”—affect this dynamic character. We further show how such narratives can prompt, sustain, and disrupt entrepreneurship across multiple generations. Our findings offer insights that refine our understanding of entrepreneurial legacies beyond mere projections of the past through secondhand imprinting.

Organizational Crises in Family Firms: The Effects on Intergenerational Innovation

2014

Bridging the Gap in Family Firm Innovation Research: Understanding Differences by Integrating Absorptive Capacity

Daspit, Joshua J. - Mississippi State University
Long, Rebecca G. - Mississippi State University

How familiness affects innovation outcomes via absorptive capacity: A
dynamic capability perspective of the family firm

Journal of Family Business Strategy

December 2018

Familiness, the unique bundle of resources associated with the family’s involvement in the firm, affects firm outcomes; yet, how familiness affects the internal dynamics of the family firm to yield outcomes, such as innovation,
remains unclear. To this end, we use a dynamic capability perspective to propose that familiness affects absorptive capacity, a knowledge-specific dynamic capability, through which the firm’s innovation outcomes are influenced. Further, we acknowledge how these relationships are altered by the involvement of nonfamily members in the family firm. The conceptual model offered highlights the role of absorptive capacity in understanding how familiness affects innovation outcomes and elucidates the heterogeneity across family firms that results from nonfamily member involvement.

Bridging the Gap in Family Firm Innovation Research: Understanding the Differences by Integrating Absorptive Capacity

2013

The Buck Stops Here…and Here: A Study of Co-CEOs in Family Business

Annette, Rahael - George Washington University

Not Yet Published

2013

Investigative Long-Term orientation and Entrepreneurial Orientation in Multi-generational Family Firms

Craig, Justin - Northeastern University
Clinton, Eric  - Dublin City University
Diaz, Vanessa - Dublin City University

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 

September 27, 2018

Drawing on the transgenerational entrepreneurship perspective, we employ a multiple case study approach to investigate why multigenerational family firms innovate. The data collection process drew upon five in-depth cases comprising 42 semi-structured interviews, 25 participant observations, and several thousand pages of historical data dating from 1916 to 2017. We find patterns on how the firms’ long-term view—embracing both the past and the future—influences the innovation motives of these firms. Specifically, we identify three innovation patterns: conserving, persisting and legacy-building. We introduce a set of propositions and a framework linking long-term orientation dimensions to innovation motives and innovation outcomes. Our research thus contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of innovation behavior in family firms.

Investigative Long-Term Orientation and Entrepreneurial Orientation in Mult-generational Family Firms

2012

Exploring the Role of Spiritual Leadership within Family Firms

Day, Kristen - University of Tennessee
 Kellermann, Franz  - University of Tennessee

Is the Spiritual Bond Bound by Blood? An Exploratory Study of Spiritual Leadership in Family Firms

Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion

January 2013

Our research is one of the first to examine spiritual leadership, which lies at the crossroads of workplace spirituality and transcendental leadership, within the context of family firms. We describe how the unique characteristics of family firms allow for and encompass spiritual leadership. First, we adapt the construct of spiritual leadership to the firm level. Then, analyzing dyadic data, we provide empirical support for the emerging theory of spiritual leadership by linking the spiritual bond between leader and follower to organizational citizenship behavior, a new dependent variable in the nomological net of spiritual leadership. We further explore the relationship in subsets of our data, finding that the relationship holds for family members but does not hold for non-family employees of the family business. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Exploring the Role of Spiritual Leadership within Family Firms

2011

Family Business Identity and Information Exploration

Joshi, Mahendra - Grand Valley State University

Small business owners’ external information-seeking behaviors: The role of perceived
uncertainty and organizational identity complexity

Journal of Small Business Strategy

January 2018

This study examines how small business owners' perceived uncertainty about their environment interacts with the complexity of their organization's identity to explain their information seeking from external sources. We hypothesize that perceived uncertainty is positively related to external information seeking, and, organizational complexity, in the form of different organizational identities, complicates this relationship and reduces the information seeking in certain conditions while increases in others. The results extend evidence to prior established relationships between perceived uncertainty and information seeking and also suggest that organizational complexity plays an equally important role as a critical moderator. Additionally, we propose a different classification scheme for the external sources and use this to test our hypotheses.

Family Business Identity and Information Exploration

2011

Family Offices and the Future

 Welsh, Dianne - University of North Carolina
Rosplock, Kirby - Gen Spring Family Offices
Segurado Luis, Juan - Spain

Not Yet Published

2011

Firm Ownership & Productivity

Francesco Barbera, PhD - The University of Adelaide

Ken Moores

Firm Ownership and Productivity: A Study of Family and Non-Family SMEs

Small Business Economics

October 2011

Motivated by a lack of consensus in the current literature, the objective of this paper is to reveal whether family firms are more or less productive than non-family firms. As a first step, this paper links family business research to the theoretical notion that family involvement has an effect on the factors of production from a productivity standpoint. Second, by using a Cobb–Douglas framework, we provide empirical evidence that family labour and capital indeed yield diverse output contributions compared with their non-family counterparts. In particular, family labour output contributions are significantly higher, and family capital output contributions significantly lower. Interestingly, differences in total factor productivity between family and non-family firms disappear when we allow for heterogeneous output contributions of family production inputs. These findings imply that the assumption of homogeneous labour and capital between family and non-family firms is inappropriate when estimating the production function.

Firm Ownership & Productivity

2010

Toward a Theory of Accountability in Family Businesses

Pieper, Torsten M.  - Kennesaw State University
Guidice, Rebecca - University of Nevada
 Mero, Neil - Kennesaw State University

Perceptions of accountability in family business: Using accountability theory to understand differences between family and nonfamily executives

Journal of Family Business Strategy

December 2013

Family business success rests on implementing a governance system that recognizes a complex nexus of
social relationships. While scholars have used existing frameworks such as agency theory to explore the effect of financial incentives on agent behavior and performance, they have not integrated perspectives from psychology and sociology in a way that fully addresses the challenges of effective family business
governance. Our research advances current knowledge of governance in family business by examining the implications of accountability theory to explore differences in the perceptions of accountability between family and nonfamily executives as a result of family firm monitoring. We examine the elements and linkages that form the basis of accountability in the context of firm characteristics uniquely common to family business and that are influential in the development of perceptions between executives of contrasting family status. Potential contingencies to the family status–accountability relationship is also considered, as are the implications of effective monitoring for family firm
performance.

Toward a Theory of Accountability in Family Businesses

2010

Human Capital Impacts on Innovation in Entrepreneurial Family Firms

Gottschall, Richard - Concordia University

Dawson, Alexandra - Concordia University
Sharma, Pramodita - Concordia University

Family human capital and the championing of innovation in small firms

Journal of Small Business Strategy

November 2020

This study of 94 small family firms focuses on complex interactions between individual family members and firm-level activities and outcomes. We develop and test a model of relationships between family championing of innovation, family human capital characteristics, and the firms’ adoption of innovation. Family members championed many more adoptions of innovation than non-family members did, demonstrating strong family influence in smaller firms. An important point is that this strong family influence would appear insignificant without accounting for the significant moderating influence of variance in family human capital levels. This study contributes to our understanding of family influence’s heterogeneous nature by modeling interaction between mediating family behaviors and moderating family characteristics

Human Capital Impacts on Innovation in Entrepreneurial Family Firms

2009

Does Work-Family Integration or Segmentation Work Better: Evidence from Family Businesses

Perry, John - Wichita State University

Not Yet Published

2008

Family Ties: For Love or Money?

 Pieper, Torsten M.  - Kennesaw State University
Gillette,  Ann B. - Kennesaw State University
Ackert, Lucy F. - Kennesaw State University

Not Yet Published

2008

Stakeholder Management, Ethical Behavior, and Performance of Family Businesses: A Systems View

Goel, Sanjay - University of Minnesota

Not Yet Published

2007

The Impact of Family Influence Level and Family Influence Type on the Performance of Family Businesses in Germany and France

Jaskiewicz, Peter - University of Alberta – Canada

Not Yet Published

2007

Stakeholder Salience in the Family Firm

Chrisman, James J. - Mississippi State University
Ring, John Kirk - Mississippi State University

Stakeholder Salience In The Family Firm

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

May 2009

Family firms are replete with problems concerning family and business issues but they remain the most dominant form of business worldwide. Decisions about strategy, structure, and goals of the firm play an integral part in the distinction of family firms from non-family firms (Chrisman, Chua & Sharma, 2005) and these decisions are further complicated in the family firm by the interaction of the family and business systems (Stafford, Duncan, Danes & Winter, 1999). Sharma (2000) and Chrisman and colleagues (2005) call for research of this interaction through the utilization of stakeholder theory because family firms involve a specific array of stakeholders with different stakes and different levels of salience. This dissertation further investigates the interaction of the family and the business in a new and interesting way. This will be the first attempt to investigate the way stakeholders and their salience affects the goals and performance of family firms.

The dissertation developed below focuses on the differences that exist among the salience of stakeholders in the family firm. I first develop theory-based hypotheses on a variety of relationships within the family and family firm that will contribute to a better understanding of the behavior of family firms. Second, I describe the research methodology and sample design to be utilized to test the developed hypotheses. I expect my results to not only empirically validate my research questions but to also provide practical and useful information for future research in this area.

The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge by empirically testing a framework for stakeholder salience in the family firm as well as assessing how the salience of particular groups affect the performance of family firms. 

Stakeholder Salience in the Family Firm

2006

Toward a Theory of Intergenerational Creativity with Help from the Marsalis Family

Litz, Reg A. - University of Manitoba

Not Yet Published

2006

Toward a Stewardship Theory of Family Firms

Kellermanns, Franz W. - Mississippi State University
Eddleston, Kimberly A. - Northeastern University

Exploring the Entrepreneurial Behavior of Family Firms: Does the Stewardship Perspective Explain Differences?

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

March 2012

Drawing from stewardship theory, we investigated corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. We argued that stewardship culture determinants––comprehensive strategic decision making, participative governance, long–term orientation, and human capital––differentiate the most entrepreneurial family firms. Based on a study of 179 family firms, we showed that comprehensive strategic decision making and long–term orientation contribute to corporate entrepreneurship. Additionally, family–to–firm unity enhanced the positive effects participative governance and long–term orientation have on corporate entrepreneurship. While we found that family–to–firm unity can compensate for low human capital, unexpectedly, we also found that family–to–firm unity can dampen the positive relationship between human capital and corporate entrepreneurship.

Toward a Stewardship Theory of Family Firms

2005

Family Ownership and Worker Compensation

Cronqvist, Henrik - Claremont McKenna College
Nilsson, Mattias - Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Do Entrenched Managers Pay Their Workers More?

The Journal of Finance

February 2009

Analyzing a panel that matches public firms with worker-level data, we find that managerial entrenchment affects workers' pay. CEOs with more control pay their workers more, but financial incentives through cash flow rights ownership mitigate such behavior. Entrenched CEOs pay more to employees closer to them in the corporate hierarchy, geographically closer to the headquarters, and associated with conflict-inclined unions. The evidence is consistent with entrenched CEOs paying more to enjoy private benefits such as lower effort wage bargaining and improved social relations with employees. Our results show that managerial ownership and corporate governance can play an important role for employee compensation.

Family Ownership and Worker Compensation

2005

The Impact of Organizational Culture onto the Board Size of Family Businesses

Klein, Sabine B. - WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management

Not Yet Published

2004

Calling of the Farm: Case Studies of Successors and their Children in New Zealand

Frishkoff, Patricia and Paul - Leadership in Family Enterprise

Not Yet Published

2004

The Impact of Spousal Support and Involvement on Family Business Start-Ups

Danes, Sharon M. - University of Minnesota

Spousal Support and Work—Family Balance in Launching a Family Business

 Journal of Family Issues

August 1, 2009

This study examines whether emotional spousal support contributes to business owners' perceived work—family balance while launching a family business. Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory of stress is applied to 109 family business owners and their spouses. Results from structural equation models support several hypotheses. First, reports of spousal support given are strongly related to reports of support received, suggesting genuine interpersonal transactions of support. Second, the effects of spousal support are confounded until a satisfaction-with-business-communication variable is introduced, revealing competing direct and indirect effects on work—family balance. Finally, business owner work hours have an additive negative effect on work—family balance, suggesting multiple means for maintaining work—family balance.

The Impact of Spousal Support and Involvement on Family Business Start-Ups

2003

Governance in Family Business: Managing Identities and Boundaries

 Barton, Sid- University of Cincinnati
Kreiner, Glen - Pennsylvania State University
Sundaramurthy, Chamu - San Diego State University

Governing by Managing Identity Boundaries: The Case of Family Businesses

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

May 1, 2008

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.

Governance in Family Business: Managing Identities and Boundaries

2002

Investigation of Differences in Management of Founding Family Controlled Firms between Founders and their Descendants Based Upon Performance, Risk, and Value

Bhaqwat, Yatin - Grand Valley State University  

Not Yet Published