Work Family Conflict in New Business Ventures: The Moderating Effects of Spousal Commitment to the New Business Venture

The creation of new business ventures (NBVs) is considered to be a central element of entrepreneurship theory and research. The processes by which individuals set intentions, gather resources, build organizations, and manage exchanges between the organization and external groups (which include family members) are important processes in the creation of NBVs. The more NBVs do these activities, the more likely they will succeed. Different research agendas have examined the factors that influence the new business venture operator's (NBVO) success in forming a NBV. One of the more recent streams of research has focused on the NBVO's human and social capital. Human capital in the form of education and experience appears to be an important asset to the NBVO. Social capital as a NBVO resource is less widely studied. Davidsson and Honig suggest that simply having a spouse is an important resource for NBVOs. Previous research suggests that spousal social support may be helpful for several reasons. First, some spouses may provide unpaid work to help the business succeed. They may provide financial resources which reduce the urgency of cash flow problems or facilitate the entrepreneur's abilities to acquire loans. Finally, they may provide emotional encouragement and support. Together, these spousal resources may help NBVOs to overcome the liabilities of newness. However, others have suggested that spouses may be a liability and that work and family conflict may become a resource constraint for married NBVOs. There is a limited but growing body of research empirically demonstrating that married NBVOs are likely to experience strain from work and family conflict (WFC). Married NBVOs may have complex family dynamics, and spouses may act in ways that create strain on the NBVO. From a social capital perspective, social capital needs to be maintained which can be a resource drain. If so, then those spousal actions are likely to draw on the NBVOs resources to manage family dynamics. This resource drain could negatively affect the success of the NBV. Based on Sustainable Family Business Theory II, this paper investigates the degree that the NBVO's spouse is a constraint on the creation of a NBV. In particular, we focus on NBVO strain as there is significant evidence that NBVOs experience more strain than individuals in other types of gainful employment. Furthermore, this strain has some debilitating effects that may threaten the viability of any business venture. This could be most critical in the start‐up phase when the survival of the firm is most at risk. Using Sustainable Family Business Theory II as a foundation, we investigate the degree that WFC creates NBVO strain both directly from NBVO's perceptions of WFC and the degree that spouse may be a liability by passing spousal strain from WFC to the NBVO. Furthermore, we investigate how a spouse who is committed to the NBVO may exacerbate the liability of newness. We test these relationships on a sample of 110 new small businesses provided through two different state Small Business Development Center offices. This sample represented a diversity of industries and diversity by gender. The results suggest that when a spouse experiences WFC, a spouse is likely to be a resource constraint that creates NBVO physiological strain. Furthermore, spousal commitment to the NBV is likely to exacerbate this relationship. These results imply that, first, a spouse is not inherently a resource or a constraint in the creation of NBVs. The degree of spousal WFC is likely to expand or constrict NBVO resources to be successful. Thus, more research is needed to investigate WFC linked to NBV creation.     

决策者人格特征对承诺升级的影响研究

为研究决策者人格特征是否导致承诺升级现象及其产生的因素,研究者以中国文化背景的管理者为被试,运用T检验及回归分析法,证实了决策者自尊、冒险倾向、挫折容忍力、控制点等人格变量与承诺升级行为之间存在相关关系的假设,验证并扩充了西方承诺升级研究理论,为企业甄选管理决策人员实践提供了理论指导。     

家族、家族文化与家族企业发展

本文从我国家族和家族文化的视角入手,探讨了家族和家族文化在家族企业发展中的积极影响:节约管理隐性成本;面对多变经营环境快速作出反应;劳资关系的和谐稳定;企业原始积累快;管理决策高效;企业人力资源易整合,及企业发展提供所需的企业精神动力。这些积极因素的有效利用,有助于家族企业在发展中赢得其他经济组织所没有的竞争优势。同时家族企业需善用家族资源,防止家族资源的负化。     

Financial Attitudes in Family Firms: The Moderating Role of Family Commitment

This study investigates how family commitment moderates whether and how financial knowledge, positive experience with debt suppliers, and economic goal orientation affect owner–managers' attitudes toward debt financing in family firms. Using a sample of 280 German family firms, we find significant relationships between both financial knowledge and positive experience with debt suppliers and owner–managers' financial attitudes toward debt. Our findings show that family commitment moderates these relationships such that high family commitment increases the impact of prior experience with debt suppliers, though the effect of economic goal orientation is lowered and reversed. Overall, we contribute to research on financial decision making, capital structure, and social capital in family firms.     

Business Relationship Learning and Commitment in the Internationalization Process

This paper is based on a case study of an international venture and on the observations reported by a number of researchers that the received models of the internationalization process of the firm do not capture some important phenomena in the modern international business world. As several researchers argue that networks play an important role in the early internationalization the paper outlines a network model of the internationalization process of the firm. It combines the experiential learning–commitment interplay as the driving mechanism from the old internationalization process model with a similar experiential learning–commitment mechanism focusing on business network relationships. In the resulting model we can see firms learning in relationships, which enables them to enter new country markets in which they can develop new relationships which give them a platform for entering other country markets.     

家族企业与家族式管理辨析

改革开放20多年来,我国家族企业取得了令人瞩目的成就,成为推动我国经济发展的生力军,在国民经济中发挥举足轻重的作用。当前,家族企业依然保持了快速发展的势头,表现出了旺盛的生命力。然而家族式管理对企业的发展确实有很多弊端。因此,家族企业发展的趋势要改革不适应的家族式管理模式,认清家族企业不等于家族式管理。将现代企业制度与家族企业相适应的内容引入家族制,建立现代家族模式应成为家庭企业变革的重要突破点。     

浙江省家族企业继任调查分析

本文通过对浙江省已经发生继任的128家家族企业所做的问卷调研,具体分析了家族企业的继任特征、前任与继任者的个体特征、继任后家族企业的组织特征,总结家族企业继任实践存在的主要问题,并提出了相关的政策建议。     

Commitment to the Study of International Business and Cultural Intelligence: A Multilevel Model

Adopting a multilevel theoretical framework, we examined how metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence influence an individual’s commitment to the study of international business (IB). Data from 292 undergraduate and graduate business students nested in 12 U.S. business school classes demonstrated that individuals’ metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence are positively related to their commitment to the study of IB. Furthermore, there is additional commitment when the classrooms’ cultural intelligence climate is high. We discuss the implications of these findings within a classroom context that involves cross-cultural interactions.     

The Effects of Commitment to Moral Self-improvement and Religiosity on Ethics of Business Students

Using survey methodology we examined the relationships between commitment to moral self-improvement (CMSI), religiosity, ethical problem recognition, and behavioral intentions in a sample of 242 business students. Results of the study suggest that CMSI predicts ethical problem recognition and behavioral intentions. Our findings also suggest that CMSI is positively related to religiosity. The study provides some evidence of CMSI being a mediator in the influence of religiosity on ethical problem recognition and behavioral intentions. Compared to religiosity, CMSI turned out to be a better predictor of perceived importance of ethics, ethical problem recognition, and ethical behavioral intentions. The results of the study have implications for increasing understanding of ethical decision-making, future studies of business ethics, and business ethics education.     

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.     

我国家族企业在发展变革过程中应避免的误区

家族企业作为商品生产中出现最早的企业形式,被一些人认为是保守、低效率的作坊式企业,其迟早要消亡。主张家族企业必须摒弃家族制,向现代企业制度模式转化。可是,改革开放以来家族企业如火如荼,蓬勃发展的事实却说明,家族企业是我国目前最具生命力的企业形式之一。它的生存和发展有其必然性和合理性。家族企业自身具有一定的优越性,同时也存在严重弊端。我们应引导其扬长避短,健康发展,防止其走入误区。     

Socially Responsible Processes of Small Family Business Owners: Exploratory Evidence from the National Family Business Survey

The purpose of this exploratory study is to ascertain the impact of family, business, and community factors on the socially responsible processes of small family businesses, and investigate the influence of financial success and attitudes toward community on these processes. The research is grounded in the Sustainable Family Business Theory, which has been enhanced to include the interactive and collaborative action, both economically and socially, of family businesses and their communities. Data are from the National Family Business Survey, 2000 panel. The processes studied include interpersonal transactions in the form of community leadership and holding an elected or appointed office, and resource transactions in the form of providing financial or technical assistance in community development, and providing donations to local programs. Models assessed the probability and intensity of assistance provided by family businesses. The findings indicate that the social and economic climate of the community may contribute to the performance of responsible actions by businesses because human, social and financial capital resources from both the family and the business can be used to solve problems in the community. The most robust result was that individuals with very positive attitudes about their local communities were more likely to serve in leadership positions and make financial and technical contributions to the community. Business owners in economically vulnerable communities were willing to assume more responsibility to fill leadership positions in the community and make substantial contributions of financial and technical assistance than those in less vulnerable communities. Policymakers must recognize the many contributions of family businesses and forge rural developmentpolicies that not only help sustain existing businesses and fuel the engine of economic growth, but encourage human capital development, and, in turn, enhance the contributions of the family and the business to their community.     

家族企业转型的制度供给分析

在企业创立初期,家族企业具有节省创业成本,决策迅速等优势。因此,成为企业的主要组织形式。然而,大多数企业在创立初期选择家族企业是由于企业制度供给缺失导致的,即企业缺乏建立现代企业制度的条件,因此退而求其次建立了家族企业制度。随着企业的发展,这些缺失的制度供给逐渐得到弥补,为此,家族面临“二次创业”即转型,向现代企业制度转变。     

Effects of Family Socialization in the Organizational Commitment of the Family Firms from the Moral Economy Perspective

South Korean industrial conglomerates (chaebols) are discussed in the context of value-based management (VBM). Recent economics and finance literature on the diversion of corporate resources from the firm to the controlling shareholders (tunneling), for which chaebols are notoriously known, is discussed. Chaebols have engaged in empire building and expropriation of minority shareholders, distorting the process of efficient resource allocation in South Korea, and became the root cause of the 1997 financial crisis. We argue that the 1997 crisis should be viewed as a consequence of chaebols’ systematic deviation from the guiding principles of VBM. We use tunneling within chaebols as an example of the need to directly address prohibition of the expropriation of minority shareholders as a primary postulate of VBM. We argue that VBM should require that the value generated by the firm not be expropriated from minorities, or any stakeholders, by dominant shareholders. We also examine moral and ethical considerations and present explanations as to why the unethical practice of tunneling has been tolerated by the South Korean public. We show that public opinion on tunneling is changing and that the treatment of minority shareholders by chaebols’ controlling families is becoming increasingly unacceptable to South Koreans.     

家族涉入、家族理性与家族企业目标偏好——基于一项比较案例的探索

家族涉入是家族企业的基本特征,它影响了家族社会资本的结构分布,进而决定了家族理性的效用构成,并通过对家族企业二元目标的不同偏好表现出来。其中,家族理性反映为家族企业对家族整体责任的兼顾,二元目标指的是对企业即期利润的追求以及对家族非货币化利益的追求。这种家族涉入决定家族理性,家族理性体现家族企业目标偏好的理论构念,通过一项比较案例分析得以验证。案例中的两家家族企业背景相似,但由于企业传承上的不同选择影响了家族涉入情况,进而两家企业表现出显著的经营目标差异。     

Unexpected Succession: When Children Return to Take Over the Family Business

This research explores family succession in which the successors were unexpected. We present six cases studies of children who initially pursued careers outside the family firm but who later decided to return and successfully take over the small family business. Our outcomes explain why they decided to return, the conditions that they set for succeeding their fathers, and the way they approached the management of the family firm. We show that the success they experienced in their professional careers far from the family business positioned them as legitimate leaders. They made a deliberate personal choice to succeed, negotiating the conditions, and this put them on the same level as their predecessors. These successors act as entrepreneurs, they are proactive, take risks, detect new business opportunities and do not hesitate to innovate. The changes that they implement are possible thanks to the support of their predecessors who avoids the destabilization of the organization.