Mindfulness,socioemotional wealth,and environmental strategy of family businesses

The study advances knowledge in the field of business strategy and the environment by incorporating mindfulness theory into the research on socioemotional wealth (SEW) and its environmental consequences in family businesses. Using an integrative model, the paper investigates the relationship between mindfulness SEW dimensions and family firms' environmental strategies, specifically in developing sustainable products and processes. This study also proposes the firm's capabilities as a mediator in this relationship, while market turbulence is a moderator in the relationship between the firm's capabilities and sustainable products and processes. The empirical results show that in protecting SEW, specifically in the identification of family members with the firm and binding social ties, mindfulness provides a rich endowment that develops appropriate capabilities to produce sustainable products and processes. While the moderating role of market turbulence is insignificant, we can infer that irrespective of how turbulent (or not) the market is, the firm's capabilities are a key determinant of sustainable products and processes. Our findings offer theoretical and managerial implications for sustainable practices in the family business context.     

Mentoring in family businesses: Toward an understanding of commitment outcomes

Drawing from the mentoring and organizational commitment literatures, this paper addresses the relationship between mentoring and organizational commitment within the family business context. While there is a clear connection between mentoring and organizational commitment in the broader literature, the relationship takes on added complexity in family businesses. In this paper, we develop arguments and offer propositions suggesting that mentoring in family firms results in different commitment outcomes depending on the familial status of the members in the mentoring dyad. While mentoring is most often linked to affective commitment, our propositions extend theory by suggesting that the unique mentoring relationships present in family firms can foster normative and continuance commitment in many circumstances. Propositions regarding mentoring and the various facets of organizational commitment are presented. Implications for theory and human resource management are also discussed.     

Exploring the connections among spiritual leadership,altruism, and trust in family businesses

The purpose of this study is to test the claim that the top manager family members’ altruism and trust with regard to other family members should be connected with these top managers’ spiritual leadership feature. Data are collected from the top manager family members, who are in charge of their family businesses in Beylikduzu Organized Industrial Zone. Many instruments’ items are used for spiritual leadership, altruism and trust. The scope of spiritual leadership is wider than those of altruism and trust; besides references to the family, spiritual leadership also includes references to the participants, their subordinates and their businesses. The participants’ spiritual leadership factors are powerfully and positively related with their altruism and trust with regard to other family members. If altruism and trust are posited to affect spiritual leadership factors, this effect is partly achieved. Only some items of altruism and trust can affect spiritual leadership feature. The literature points out that spiritual leadership is suitable for family businesses on the grounds that intra-family altruism and trust can be related with spiritual leadership feature. The current study proves this relationship. Such knowledge can be used for family business succession, mentoring and coaching applications in family businesses, conflict management towards the issues related with both the family and the business, and structuring family’s involvement in the business.     

The dynamics of limited breaking out: the case of the Arab manufacturing businesses in Israel

This paper investigates the dynamics of breaking out in the Arab manufacturing business sector in Israel. Based on an ethnographic study and in-depth interviews, this paper develops a three-tier model delineating those characteristics that shape the entrepreneurs' response to structural constraints and their respective mode of operation in the context of resource disadvantage. The model demonstrates that the limited break out of ethnic entrepreneurs signifies selective access to the majority market. Through the model, the paper develops a comprehensive conceptual framework that incorporates two different sets of constraints stemming from the nature of the larger market and institutional setting and community characteristics. The limited breaking out can be explained largely by the dynamics of the interrelations among the institutional environment, the local resources, and the entrepreneurs' characteristics. This implies a Janus-face perspective of breaking out, in which the Arab entrepreneurs tend to use their resources both for the maintenance of their local market and for catering to special segments in the majority market that seek relatively cheap prices or specialized products. The paper concludes that the limited breaking out reflects institutional processes that militate against the minority's ability to fully integrate into the majority market.     

High-performance human resource practices in Australian family businesses: Preliminary evidence from the wine industry

Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, this paper examines the prevalence of high-performance human resource (HR) systems in Australian family businesses. Focusing on the wine industry, we found that establishing formal HR systems, particularly related to employee involvement and motivation, was positively related to perceived effectiveness of a company’s HR function, leadership, strategic alignment and profitability. Results indicated that formalizing HR systems occurs slowly in the industry, and is largely a function of organizational size. This exploratory study shows the need for more in-depth studies of HR in family-run organizations and supports the notion that increased emphasis on people practices is important to operational and financial success of the family business.     

The family gap in wages: What wombmates reveal

We shed new light on the effects of having children on hourly wages by exploiting access to data on the entire population of employed same-sex twins in Denmark. Our second contribution is the use of administrative data on absenteeism; the amount of hours off due to holidays and sickness. Our results suggest that childbearing reduces female hourly wages but the principal explanation is in fact mothers’ higher levels of absence. We find a positive wage premium for fathers.     

Expertise,university infrastructure and approaches to new venture creation: assessing students who start businesses

Abstract

Within the broader literature on contextual determinants of effectual and causal cognitive logics, the paper explores the drivers of causal and effectual reasoning in student-founders of new ventures, particularly focusing on the role of university entrepreneurship-related offerings and student prior business experience. Using the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS), the study involves a sample of 2179 student entrepreneurs from 26 countries. Our findings indicate that university entrepreneurship-related offerings such as curricular programming, co-curricular activities, and financial support play a differentiating role in the proclivity towards causal or effectual approaches across the groups of experienced and inexperienced student entrepreneurs. We also provide evidence that effectuation and causation are not mutually exclusive constructs: they are intertwined and can unfold simultaneously.     

State Spending: What to Cut, Where, and Why

The growth of government has abscured the erstwhile clarity of its tasks Geoffrey Wook, of City University Business School, considers cuts in state spending that would clarify the function of government, reduce its burden on the taxpayer, and re-establish its central and limited purpose.     

Consulting experts with vested interests: The power of benchmarking

A decisionmaker gets independent advice from two experts, who can be of two different types. Experts are risk-neutral and prefer certain policies irrespective of the state of nature, so to induce information-sharing the decisionmaker must reward truthful experts. I show that, in this environment, a heterogeneous committee has no informational advantage over a single expert: a decision rule that encourages one expert to be honest immediately makes honesty less attractive for the other. With a homogenous committee, the higher is the correlation between the experts’ signals, the more the decisionmaker is willing to pay to secure independent advice.Received: April 2004, Accepted: Accepted: January 2005, JEL Classification: D71, D82Lars Frisell: I thank David Austen-Smith, Tim Feddersen, Johan Lagerlöf, Jan Potters, Ken Shotts, Jonas Vlachos, Jörgen W. Weibull, an anonymous referee, and especially Karl Wärneryd for helpful comments. Financial support from the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation and the Sweden-America Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.     

哈杉 重整出海

“我们面临的情况确实比较严峻。”2008年11月12日，哈杉公司董事办主任潘陈忠在接受《中国新时代）采访时说，“今年的生产总量会明显下降，往年我们（温州的工厂）一年能生产400万双鞋，但今年预计能达到250万双也比较困难了。     

有线电视:"垄"什么"断"?

对于有线电视运营商的独家垄断,让我们先从去年发生在北京市有线电视运营商"歌华有线"的收视维护费涨价谈起.     

Empowerment: the power to do what?

Given the widespread introduction of empowerment within the UK, this article examines meanings of the concept and the implementation of specific initiatives. From a study of thirteen organisations it is suggested empowerment has limitations and tensions including little power dissemination, close control over employees, poor prospects of extra remuneration and job insecurity.     

Family businesses and non-family equity: literature review and avenues for future research

Family firms commonly prefer internal funding and retention of control. Under certain circumstances, however, equity investments from outside the family can be a relevant alternative source of capital. To facilitate further knowledge about the interaction of family-owned businesses and external equity investors, the present work reviews 42 studies and suggests possible directions for future research. Results reveal that extant studies focus mainly on five key areas—corporate finance, contract design and collaboration, succession and exit route, strategy and performance, and corporate governance. Moreover, the paper discusses various gaps in the extant work and presents three opportunities for future research in a detailed manner. These include a comparison of different types of investors in the context of family-owned businesses, an investigation of minority investor exits from family firms, and an analysis of the impact of investors on family firm boards. All in all, the findings can guide the future development of this emerging field of research and have implications for theory and practice.     

What Corporate Boards have to do with Strategy: A Cognitive Perspective

Traditional research on corporate governance has viewed the contribution of corporate directors to strategy making as limited by their lack of independence or firm-specific knowledge. To the degree that directors contribute to strategy, most previous research has viewed their role primarily as dealing with the conflict resulting from divergent preferences of agents and principles. The cognitive perspective this paper proposes suggests that directors contribute to dealing with the complexity and uncertainty associated with strategic decisions. It argues that directors possess valuable problem-solving expertise, which they can apply to a variety of contexts. Directors make their cognitive contributions to strategic decision making by performing along with a firm's managers a set of cognitive tasks: scanning, interpretation and choice.     

Survival of the fittest: Technical assistance,survival and growth of small businesses and implications for public policy

Concerns about the value of government programs that provide management and technical assistance have been the subject of debate among researchers and policymakers. Based on an analysis of a multiyear survey sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Entrepreneurial Development, we examine the relationship between managerial and technical assistance and firm survival, as well as the relationship between the characteristics of technical assistance and financial and employment growth. Overall, findings suggest that managerial and technical assistance have a positive effect on both survival and growth, but these effects depend on the size of the firm, characteristics of the counseling experience, as well as age and other demographic differences. Implications for public policy are discussed.