Responsible family ownership in small‐ and medium‐sized family enterprises: an exploratory study

The concept of responsible ownership was originally developed with reference to large, publicly held firms. However, the relevance of small‐ and medium‐sized closely held firms, such as family firms, in all economies and the specific governance and organisational characteristics of these firms require further examination of the responsible ownership concept and its operationalisation. Based on the existing literature, we define the construct of responsible family ownership to fill this gap in responsible ownership theory. We propose a scale that can be used to assess the responsible family ownership construct in small‐ and medium‐sized family enterprises. The data used in this exploratory study were collected in an ad hoc survey answered by a representative sample of 84 small‐ and medium‐sized family enterprises. The study contributes to the responsible ownership literature by presenting the responsible family ownership construct, a key driver of balance in family and firm systems that is therefore critical to the health of small‐ and medium‐sized family enterprises. In addition, a scale is proposed as a means to operationalise the construct and to derive practical implications for the governance of this kind of firms.     

Comparing Innovation Capability of Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: Examining the Effects of Organizational Culture and Empowerment

This study analyzes the impact of organizational culture and empowerment on innovation capability, and examines the peculiarities of these effects. The study's hypotheses are tested by applying both individual and firm‐level analyses to survey data collected from 743 employees from 93 small and medium‐sized firms located in Turkey. For medium‐sized enterprises on both the individual and firm level of analysis, results suggest that collectivism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with empowerment, whereas power distance is negatively related to empowerment. Assertiveness focus has no relations with empowerment and innovation capability, yet among cultural dimensions, only uncertainty avoidance is related to innovation capability. For small‐sized enterprises, findings suggest that both power distance and uncertainty avoidance are linked to both empowerment and innovation capability on the individual level, whereas two new paths between collectivism and innovation capability and between assertiveness focus and empowerment are found on the firm level. Also, empowerment is found to be positively related to innovation capability for both small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) on both the individual and firm level. In terms of managerial practice, our study helps clarify the key role played by cultural dimensions in the process of shaping an empowering and innovative work environment. Findings also reveal that managers should focus on participative managerial practices (e.g., empowerment) to promote innovation capability of SMEs.     

Directors' ownership and the performance of small and medium sized firms in the U.K.

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between firm performance and the proportion of shares owned by directors for a sample of small and medium sized companies in the U.K. The paper also examines, however, the impact of organisational form on firm performance. The results suggest that, in contrast to the majority of large firm studies on the subject, a curvilinear relationship is found to exist between firm performance and the percentage of equity held by the board of directors. The return on assets of firms is found to increase as director ownership increases up to a maximum at 68.2% of ownership, after which it then decreases as director ownership approaches 100% of equity. In addition, the results suggest that firms whose directors are more highly remunerated and who hold directorships in other companies are significantly more profitable. Furthermore, firms in which the owners perceive present management practices to be lacking in structure are found to have significantly lower performance.     

Banking Relationships: Effects on Debt Terms for Small Spanish Firms*

This paper analyzes the effect of banking relationships on interest rates and the probability that guarantees must be provided in a sample of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The results indicate that SMEs that work with fewer banks obtain debt at a lower cost. This seems to suggest that concentrated banking relationships reduce the uncertainty of lending to risky firms, which translates into lower interest rates. Reduction in risk could come from greater flexibility in negotiations, increased control over the investment, and mitigation of the free‐rider problem. When the relationship is exclusive, which would represent the maximum concentration, a bank can take advantage of its monopoly position and require more guarantees from a firm. SMEs that have longer‐term relationships with their bank are more likely to be required to provide guarantees. This result seems to suggest that SMEs involved in longer‐term relationships are subject to the information monopoly of the lender.     

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.     

Technological Collaboration: Bridging the Innovation Gap between Small and Large Firms*

This paper analyzes how technological collaboration acts as an input to the innovation process and allows small and medium‐sized enterprises to bridge the innovation gap with their bigger counterparts. Based on a large longitudinal sample of Spanish manufacturing firms, the results show that though technological collaboration is a useful mechanism for firms of all sizes to improve innovativeness, it is a critical factor for the smallest firms. The impact of this collaboration varies depending on innovation output and type of partner. Specifically, the impact of collaboration in small and medium‐sized firms is more significant for product than process innovations. Regarding type of partner, vertical collaboration—with suppliers and clients—has the greatest impact on firm innovativeness, though this effect is clearer for medium‐sized enterprises than for the smallest firms.     

Formal Human Resource Management Practices in Small Growing Firms*

Using data from micro, small, and medium firms in Australia, the paper exams changes with size toward more enunciated and prescribed practices; (2) the changes in HRM in small and medium‐sized firms begin early in the growth process and proceed at a faster rate than during the latter growth phase; and (3) the adoption of formal HRM practices at the managerial level lags behind that at the operational level at the smaller firm sizes.     

SBA default rates : Selection bias and credit deterioration

This study estimates the effects of changes in the money and capital markets on small business loan failure rates. It develops a lagged model of the relationship between term structure and risk premium variables and the loan failure rates of the Small Business Administration (SBA). Bank credit availability to small firms is shown to be the key factor in relating changes in economic conditions to changes in the SBA loan failure rates. As bank credit availability changes over an economic cycle, there is a movement of the least risky small firms into and out of the population from which the SBA grants and guarantees loans.     

Does the Market for Top Executives Work? CEO Pay and Turnover in Small U.K. Companies

This paper presents the results of our investigation into the operation of the managerial labour market in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. Using a sample of some 40 or so companies we study the sensitivity of managerial pay and tenure to company performance. Managerial pay in this type of firms is much lower than the six digit figures quoted for large public companies and CEO turnover is much higher than we expected. We find some evidence to suggest that pay in small companies is sensitive to sales growth and that CEO tenure in public companies responds to the growth in sales.     

The Effects of CEO Founder Status and Stock Ownership on Entrepreneurial Orientation in Small Firms

This paper studies how governance drives entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in small firms. We argue that founder status and ownership create powerful personal incentives for small firm CEOs to engage in behaviors that influence EO. Integrating stewardship theory and the principal‐principal branch of agency theory, we test our hypotheses on a sample of 339 Swedish firms, and find that CEO founder status is significantly and positively associated with EO, while CEO stock ownership significantly but negatively predicts EO. We additionally test two boundary conditions that show that the founder‐CEO's prior managerial experience in start‐up firms positively moderates the founder‐EO relationship, while contrary to expectations, CEO ownership diversification has no effect on the negative association between ownership and EO. Thus, our study adopts a corporate governance perspective to explain how variations in EO across small firms are driven by the goals and motivations of its leader. Our research also shows that in small, private firms the balance of power is tipped in favor of the CEO rather than the board of directors. Finally, we underline the importance of adopting alternative theoretical lens like stewardship and principal‐principal agency, given that traditional principal‐agent problems are largely mitigated in the small firm context.     

Uncovering Barriers to Complex Incremental Product Innovation in Small and Medium‐Sized Financial Services Firms*

Developing new products is of the highest importance for the survival of firms. This not only refers to really new products, but firms also need to invest in modifying their existing products. Small and medium‐sized companies are no exception to this rule. The present study focuses on the innovative activities of small and medium‐sized financial service companies and aims to answer how small and medium‐sized financial services firms organize their product innovation processes and what the main barriers during these innovative attempts are. Data from 30 financial small and medium‐sized enterprises were collected to address these issues. The data showed that the firms in our study experience problems in terms of resources, project‐based working, incentives, and information technology, despite the fact that the innovative efforts are aimed at modifying existing services. Although these issues may not be totally unexpected, the results from this study do point at some interesting distinctions with the previous literature. Furthermore, it is suggested that the impact of the barriers may be of lower importance than is often assumed in the innovation literature.     

Managerial Ownership and Agency Cost: Evidence from Bangladesh

This study examines the influence of managerial ownership on firm agency costs among listed firms in Bangladesh. This is an institutional setting that features a mixture of agency costs. This institutional setting has a concentration of ownership by managers, but the firms are not solely owned by managers. The extant literature suggests that the sacrifice of wealth by the principal and potential costs associated with monitoring the agents is known as the agency cost. This study uses three measures of agency cost: the ‘expense ratio’, the ‘Q-free cash flow interaction’, and the ‘asset utilisation ratio’. The finding of the study is that managerial ownership reduces the firm agency cost only under the ‘asset utilisation ratio’ measure of agency cost; this is robust with regard to a number of robustness tests. Furthermore, the non-linearity tests suggest that the convergence of interest is evident with very high and low levels of managerial ownership. The entrenchment effect by the owners is evident at moderate levels of managerial ownership. Although there has been great scepticism among management researchers on the validity of agency theory, overall, the findings of this study do not reject the validity of agency theory. Given that the entrenchment by managers is evident at certain levels of ownership and that the agency problem may still exist between insiders and outsiders, legislative guidelines for controlling share ownership may be required.     

Managerial Stock Ownership and Debt Diversification

In this study, we examine the impact of managerial behavior on the debt diversification decisions of firms using the agency cost of debt framework. We hypothesize that managers with higher equity ownership should favor debt diversification to avoid efficient monitoring by debt holders and thus, be able to engage in risk‐shifting behavior. Our empirical results provide strong evidence for a positive association between managerial ownership and debt diversification. This relationship is observed to be stronger for smaller firms, which are traditionally more susceptible to the moral hazard problem. Our results remain robust for an alternate measure of debt diversification.     

Predictive Strength of Lending Technologies in Funding SMEs

Using a proprietary database of lending decisions (N = 9,898) for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), the paper investigates how banks cope with the adverse selection dilemma. Based on an intertemporal framework, we qualify incorrect and correct lending decisions of banks and investigate the power of lending technologies to predict errors and correct choices. Findings suggest that adverse selection can be better controlled by a durable bank–firm relationship, as well as by an atomistic loan decision process, at the local level. By contrast, a loan decision‐making process based exclusively on hard financial information about SMEs may lead to adverse selection errors.     

A Note on Agency Conflicts and the Small Firm Investment Decision*

This paper explains how agency conflicts—and potential agency conflicts—can influence the investment decisions of small firms, and provides evidence of these effects using data from a recent survey of small firm investment practices. The survey asks business owners to identify their most important investment concern—overinvestment or underinvestment. We find that underinvestment concerns are more prevalent in growing firms, and those with concentrated ownership and control structures. Overinvestment concerns increase as firms adopt less‐concentrated ownership and control structures. These results suggest that the management challenges facing small firms shift as the degree of separation between ownership and control becomes greater.     

Small Business Credit Scoring and Its Pitfalls: Evidence from Japan

This paper studies the Japanese credit scoring market using data on 2,000 small and medium‐sized enterprises and a small business credit scoring (SBCS) model widely used in the market. After constructing a model for determining a bank's profit maximization, some simulation exercises are conducted, and pitfalls of lending based on SBCS are indicated. The simulation results suggest that the reason why SBCS loan losses occur would be the combination of adverse selection and window‐dressing problems. In addition, omitted variable bias and transparency of financial statements are important.     

Credit rationing and firm exports: Microeconomic evidence from small and medium‐sized enterprises in China

This paper examines the effect of credit rationing on export performance by small and medium‐sized firms in China. We use a detailed firm‐level data provided by the Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises Dynamic Survey (SMEDS) during 2015–16 to conduct this analysis. The SMEDS provides firm‐specific measures of credit rationing based directly on firm‐level responses to the survey rather than indirect ones, based on firm‐level financial statements. We find that, at the extensive margin, weak and strong credit rationing reduces export probability of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) by 15.1% and 39.6%, respectively. At the intensive margin, they decrease SMEs' export values by more than 20.0% and over 28.8%, respectively. Different than existing literature, we construct valid firm‐level instruments, firm‐level housing stock, for credit rationing rather than using province‐level instruments. We also employ county‐industry‐level instruments and obtain consistent estimates. In addition, credit rationing exhibits heterogeneous impacts on firms with different liquidity ratios, product portfolios, external collateral and capital utilisation rates.     

EDI success in small and medium‐sized enterprises: A field study

This research aims to identify empirically the success factors that have allowed small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to obtain advantages from electronic data interchange (EDI). These advantages can be operational, managerial, and strategic in nature. Results of a field study done in 39 firms indicate that it is the quality of the organizational context of EDI (organizational support, implementation process, and control procedures) that is crucial to the attainment of benefits from this technology. In turn, the quality of the organizational context is higher when the small firm implements EDI voluntarily rather than having it imposed by a major client or supplier. These results are compared with those of a prior study done in a large business context.     

The Interdependence between Trade Credit and Bank Lending: Commitment in Intermediary Firm Relationships

This study investigates the interdependence between trade and bank credit among 468 Portuguese small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The results show that a single bank relationship is prevalent among Portuguese SMEs, indicating that the proprietary borrower information that banks obtain through their relationship results in an information monopoly that creates a holdup problem and leads to high interest rates. Suppliers that can control their customers' credit risk may provide additional credit and thus help alleviate concerns associated with holdup costs. Trade credit is a viable alternative to short‐term debt, especially when firms' main bank is unwilling to increase its exposure to liquidity constraints.     

Innovation's Second Step

Innovative companies often place their emphasis on invention, research, and new product development, even as they neglect the process of bringing products to the marketplace in a way that is advantageous over the long term. Small to medium‐sized businesses that are scaling up are particularly vulnerable to entering into unfavorable distribution arrangements with large mass‐market retailers. Often, managers assume their firm will automatically benefit from a technological or creative breakthrough. Rather than focusing solely on new innovations and viewing distribution as an afterthought, we suggest that innovative firms make channel management a priority as their products are discovered and they attempt to reach more customers. In this article, strategies are offered as paths managers should consider as they use their innovations to scale up from small or medium‐sized firms into large companies. Steps for implementation as well as concurrent risks are also presented. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.