The Development of HRM Practices in Taiwan

Small and medium-sized, mostly family-owned, enterprises employ more than 60 per cent of paid employees in Taiwan; however, these enterprises traditionally do not have distinct human resource management functions. In contrast, state-owned and large-sized private enterprises have gradually established their human resource systems and learned HRM techniques from foreign-owned companies. The article first examines employment structure and labour market development in Taiwan, then evaluates employment legislation and the development of HRM functions, and finally identifies several major future challenges, such as employee participation and employment security.     

Brand Management in Small to Medium‐Sized Enterprises*

Although an impressive body of literature has emerged focusing on the critical activities involved in brand management for larger organizations with well‐established brands and substantial marketing budgets, no research has been undertaken to examine branding within small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The present study therefore seeks to assess the nature and scope of brand management within an SME context. Findings show significant differences between small and large organizations along 9 of the 10 brand management dimensions reported in Keller's brand report card. Moreover, different brand management practices are associated with business performance in SMEs. Implications of the study are highlighted, limitations noted, and directions for future research outlined.     

Board Composition in Small and Medium‐Sized Family Firms*

This study focuses on the determinants of board composition in Belgian small and medium‐sized family firms. It extends the empirical literature on board composition in private small and medium‐sized family enterprises by integrating several dimensions of the “family component” in the research model. Furthermore, using a multinomial logit model, we examine in which circumstances family firms opt for (1) a family board, (2) an inside board, or (3) an outside board. Results suggest that family‐related contingency variables are far more important than CEO‐related or control variables, giving support to the argument that board composition in family firms is a reflection of the family characteristics and objectives. Moreover, the results suggest that a resource dependence and added value perspective explain more of the variation in board composition than agency considerations.     

知识型企业人力资源管理策略研究

知识型企业主要由知识水平相对较高的知识型员工组成,对企业的人力资源管理提出了新的要求,人力资源管理在知识型企业成为知识管理战略的核心内容。弄清知识型企业自身的特点与要求,采用取新的人性化的人力资源管理策略已成为必然。     

HRM in Japanese Enterprises: Trends and Challenges

The rise in thc Western concept of HRM parallels the global success of Japanese manufacturing enterprises. HRM in these firms emphasized an internal labour market and stable relationships between all stakeholders. The global environment may now require firms to shift to a more market-oriented approach. The evidence points to peripheral changes taking place but within the overall structure of traditional Japanese management. This gradualism has important implications for Western firms adopting the HRM paradigm. The context and configuration of HRM is the essence of Japanese managerial strategy. Failure of Western firms to recognize this will mean that HRM will lack a strategic focus and be unable to produce the desired outcomes.     

Business Planning Practices of Family‐Owned Firms within a Quality Framework*

Study purpose is to investigate the contribution of an integrated, interfunctional approach to quality management, inclusive of family/business interface management, to the success of 572 small family firms, using multiple measures of success (congruity and business revenues). A positive customer reputation was the most important business goal for 44.6 percent of firms. Interface and business management significantly explained business revenue and congruity between business and family while controlling for owner and business characteristics. Family/business interface management explained 9.7 percent of congruity variance and 8.2 percent of gross revenue variance, whereas business management explained 3.3 percent of congruity variance and 2.2 percent of gross revenue variance.     

Socioemotional Wealth and Innovativeness in Small‐ and Medium‐Sized Family Enterprises: A Configuration Approach

What makes small‐ and medium‐sized family firms (family SMEs) innovative? Some family firm dynamics promote, yet others hinder innovation. It remains unclear whether combinations of family firm dynamics increase innovativeness. Our configurational perspective of socioemotional wealth (SEW) unravels determinants of family SMEs' innovativeness. We conduct a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis with 452 Swiss family SMEs. We categorize SEW dimensions into configurations of necessary and sufficient conditions. We contribute to theory on family SMEs' innovativeness because we reveal that the interplay of SEW dimensions leads to innovativeness. This offers practitioners a better framework to choose between SEW configurations.     

International Opportunity Recognition among Small and Medium‐Sized Family Firms*

Current research in the field of entrepreneurship emphasizes the importance of opportunity recognition as a key element in the entrepreneurial process. It has been recognized that network ties, activeness and alertness, and prior knowledge are related to how entrepreneurs recognize new opportunities. However, it is unclear how important these factors are when a firm explores opportunities for entry into a foreign market. In this exploratory case study, covering the international opportunity recognition of eight family‐owned small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), we found that the firms in question mainly recognized international opportunities by establishing new formal ties rather than using existing informal or family ties. The findings also indicated that due to the small size and the flexibility of the management team in family SMEs, these firms were able to react quickly to new international opportunities. However, there was no direct relationship between the prior knowledge of the firms and their international opportunity recognition. In addition, we found that trade exhibitions formed the primary context for the international opportunity recognition of the SMEs in this study. These findings motivate a set of five propositions that may lead to further studies on this topic.     

The Dependence of Family Businesses on a Single Decision‐Maker*

Anecdotal evidence suggests that family businesses are very dependent on a single individual (the owner‐manager). However, the degree of dependence previously has not been studied formally. Further, an explanation for why some family businesses are highly dependent on the owner‐manager and others are not has not been explored. Utilizing a national survey of Canadian family‐owned businesses, this paper therefore addresses two central issues: (1) the degree of dependence of family‐owned businesses on a single individual; and (2) the factors associated with this reliance. Self‐report responses from family business owners provided evidence of a high level of dependence on the owner‐manager. In 75 percent of all family businesses, respondents believed that the company was either dependent or very dependent on them. The response to this subjective question is consistent with responses to our three more objective measures. First, 65 percent of owner‐managers responded that they made all the major decisions in at least three of five functional business areas. Second, these businesses had few key managers—in 57 percent of all businesses, there were only two or fewer key managers in addition to the owner. Third, in 62 percent of all family businesses, neither had a successor been chosen nor had a process been put in place for choosing a successor. These results strongly suggest that family businesses are highly dependent on a single individual. Six factors had significant power in explaining the degree of dependence. Two factors related to the owner‐manager—dependence decreased in the age of the owner‐manager and in proximity of the owner‐manager to retirement. Four factors related to the family business: dependence decreased in the value of the firm, the number of shareholders, and the age of the business and was greater where the owner‐manager's family had voting control. Surprisingly, neither the existence of a board of directors with outside membership nor an advisory board with outside membership helped explain the level of dependence.     

我国企业人力资源管理效能衡量模式研究评述

总结我国学者在人力资源管理效能衡量模式研究领域的主要成就,把我国关于企业人力资源管理效能衡量的研究历程界定为:自外而内的“移植”、“引进”、自泛而专的“唤起”、“聚焦”和系统化的“整合”、“创新”阶段。分析目前国内企业人力资源管理效能衡量模式的研究动态,并进一步探讨了企业人力资源管理效能衡量模式研究的发展趋势和研究空间。     

Customer Relationship Management: A Comparative Analysis of Family and Nonfamily Business Practices*

It has been reported that family businesses perceive excellent customer service as critical to the future of their businesses. However, little research into the customer relationship management (CRM) practices of family businesses has been performed. In this study, we examine CRM implementation among 82 family and 370 nonfamily firms. Family and nonfamily businesses report similar attitudes toward the importance of CRM, their knowledge of CRM, and their success when they do implement it. However, using a logit regression model, we find that the actual implementation strategies of family businesses are significantly different from those of nonfamily businesses. These results remain constant when controlling for size and industry sector.     

家族企业所有者与职业经理人关系研究

企业主与职业经理人信任问题在工业化后的美国、日本等发达国家已不复存在,但在我国仍然困扰家族企业的发展。究其原因,一是企业主家文化观念根深蒂固,不相信外人;二是企业主受经理人败德行为打击,心有余悸。为了突破管理瓶颈,提升企业竞争力,引进职业经理人成为家族企业必然的抉择。事实上,规范的企业主与经理人关系是正和博弈,互信是前提,互补是条件,互托是基础,互惠是目的。     

Family Business Characteristics and the Approach to HRM in Overseas Ventures

This paper provides new evidence on the relationship between family business (FB) and human resource management (HRM) abroad. Our analysis provides two main results. First, not all organizational attributes of FBs exert the same effect on the approach to HRM abroad. Whereas participation of family members in the board of directors displays no significant impact, ownership and family managerial models favor the exploitation of the human resources supplied by the parent company. In contrast, the involvement of young successors favors an explorative attitude. Second, a multidimensional approach has better explanatory power compared with a dichotomous classification of FBs.     

Leveraging Family‐Based Brand Identity to Enhance Firm Competitiveness and Performance in Family Businesses*

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.     

Exploring human resource management roles in corporate social responsibility: the CSR‐HRM co‐creation model

Formulating and translating corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy into actual managerial practices and outcome values remain ongoing challenges for many organizations. This paper argues that the human resource management (HRM) function can potentially play an important role in supporting organizations to address this challenge. We argue that HRM could provide an interesting and dynamic support to CSR strategy design as well as implementation and delivery. Drawing on a systematic review of relevant strategic CSR and HRM literatures, this paper highlights the important interfaces between CSR and HRM and develops a conceptual model, the CSR‐HRM co‐creation model, which accounts for the potential HRM roles in CSR and identifies a range of outcome values resulting from a more effective integration of the role of HRM within CSR. The paper concludes with relevant theoretical and managerial recommendations that advance our understanding of the potential interfaces between HRM and CSR and how HRM can support a systematic and progressive CSR agenda.     

Timeliness of Accounting Information in Family Controlled and Managed Companies in Brazil

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of family control and management in the quality of accounting information in Brazilian companies, with a focus on timeliness. The sample consisted of 72 Brazilian companies and 1,656 observations from 2008 to 2013. The results show that family-controlled companies are quicker to recognize good news related to the price of the respective stock. On the other hand, family managed companies showed low accounting timeliness in relation to recognition of good news. The findings contribute to the agency theory and the literature on family firms and confirm that such companies experience fewer agency problems arising from conflicts between majority and minority shareholders. In addition, the agency conflicts between the management and minority shareholders can be compounded by the recognition of good news not being in family managed firms.     

The Importance of Sectoral Differences in the Application of Complementary HRM Practices for Innovation Performance

Recent theoretical and empirical analysis in the field of economic organization has focused almost exclusively on identifying organizational practices and complementarities between such practices, without regard for the type of activity in question. However, organizational theory suggests that more knowledge-intensive production activities often involve higher degrees of strategic uncertainty for firms and performance ambiguity in relation to individual employees. Therefore, the 'organic' or 'clan' form of organization - involving the application of 'new' HRM practices - is expected to perform better within knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy, as compared to other sectors. A sample of 726 Danish firms with more than 50 employees in manufacturing and private services is studied. The results show that HRM practices are more effective in influencing innovation performance when applied together, as compared with situations in which individual practices are applied alone. In other words, organizational complementarities obtain. Moreover, the application of complementary HRM practices is more effective for firms in knowledge-intensive industries ('high' and 'medium' knowledge-intensive industries).     

我国企业经理人职业化对策探析

随着全球经济一体化进程的加快,我国企业面对的国际竞争日益激烈。职业经理人作为一种稀缺的宝贵资源,已经成为企业人力资本的核心要素,是各国企业竞争的焦点。目前我国职业经理人还存在着经营能力不强,职业道德较差．自我角色认知偏离等问题,距离经理人职业化还有相当大的差距。应树立正确的经营理念,深化企业人事制度改革,不断提高自身素质,从而带动职业经理人的发展壮大。     

Executive Entrenchment in Founder‐Managed Firms: An Empirical Study from China

We study the relationship between past firm performance, ownership concentration, board independence, and industry competition on the likelihood of dismissal for both founder and nonfounder executives using a panel data set of Chinese founded firms during 1999–2007. Results indicate a persistent presence of entrenchment of founder executives. Compared with the founder, the nonfounder executive is more likely to be dismissed following periods of poor firm performance combined with ownership concentration and board independence except under high levels of industry competition when founder executives are more likely to be held accountable through dismissal by independent boards.