The Influence of Large Stake Family Control on Performance: Is It Agency or Entrenchment?

Agency theory posits that the greater degree of control by those with decision-making authority, the greater the overall organizational performance. Conversely, entrenchment theory implies that at extremely high levels of inside control by those with decision authority, organizational performance decreases. Using a nationwide sample of 2,631 privately held and publically traded family businesses, we examined if the relationship of percent family ownership is an agency or entrenchment relationship and found the latter. Specifically, there was a statistically significant negative relationship between percent of family control and sales growth as well as a strong inverse relationship between percent of family controlling the top management team and all measures of financial performance.     

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.     

Industry 4.0 and circular economy practices: A new era business strategies for environmental sustainability

Amid rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 and blockchain technology (BCT) are transforming circular economy (CE) practices and prevailing business models. Recognize the same; this study examines the role of blockchain technology in circular CE practices and their impact on eco-environmental performance, which influences organizational performance. The study collects data from 404 enterprises located in Chinese and Pakistani territories, involved in cross-border supply chain operations. Both countries' sample has great relevance due to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which possesses several positive fallouts in terms of technology spillovers across firms. Using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) modeling framework, this study provides three key findings. First, BCT significantly improves the circular economy practices (circular procurement, circular design, recycling, and remanufacturing). Second, CE practices help improve firms' environmental performance and stimulate their financial performance. Third, higher eco-environmental performance significantly boosts organizational performance. This study sets out the foundations for participating countries/firms that simultaneously achieve financial and sustainable goals by integrating blockchain technology in circular economy practices.     

“I know I can,but I don't fit”: Perceived fit,self-efficacy,and entrepreneurial intention

While extant literature generally suggests a positive relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention, several moderators have been identified – suggesting possible boundary conditions on that relationship. This paper introduces perceived person-entrepreneurship fit to entrepreneurship and shows that it moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Three studies are conducted which illuminate the utility of randomized experiments and methodological approaches to address limitations in the interpretation of empirical results. Studies 1 and 2 are randomized experiments to examine causality; Study 3 contains two correlational surveys to triangulate the results by examining whether the proposed effects withstand the influence of confounding variables in real-life. The findings indicate that when a strong perception of fit with entrepreneurship is achieved, entrepreneurial intention is strongly predicted by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In contrast, if one perceives a low level of fit or no fit, entrepreneurial intention will be low, regardless of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.     

The Right to Rent: Active Resistance to Evolving Geographies of State Regulation

Drawing on recent qualitative research on the UK's Immigration Act 2016, this article sets out to explain the opposition of social housing professionals to the imposition of the Right to Rent. By locating this policy intervention within the evolving geographies of state regulation, it is possible to account for the mechanisms through which housing professionals can resist the extension of duties that were previously the remit of border agents and immigration officials. Synthesizing Bourdieu's critical sociology with Boltanski and Thevenot's sociology of critique helps explain not only the governmental underpinnings of contemporary immigration rhetoric, but also the forms of resistance for which housing professionals display a strong justification in exercising. The universal nature of ‘classification struggles’ within and beyond state institutions extends the relevance of this research to encompass most, if not all, welfarist regimes operating within actually existing neoliberal orders. The analysis of the findings of this research has wider implications that reach beyond housing and urban studies while immigration persists as one of the most significant contemporary political issues, almost without geographical exception, right across the globe.     

Bargaining power in alliance governance negotiations: evidence from the biotechnology industry

Alliance partners negotiate how they will govern their alliance. This study shows bargaining power, not just efficiency considerations, influences the outcome of this negotiation. Whereas previous research on this phenomenon associates bargaining power with firm size, this study employs more nuanced measures of bargaining power applicable to biotechnology firms while controlling both absolute and relative firm size. We find small biotechnology firms with partners that are over five times larger can still have the bargaining power to get their interests met when the two parties have opposing governance interests.     

Linking agricultural policies with obesity and noncommunicable diseases: A new perspective for a globalising world

In light of the shift in policy paradigm in agriculture from state intervention to market liberalisation and globalisation, this paper develops a series of hypotheses on the relationship between agricultural policies and consumer diets. The first hypothesis is that the paradigm shift has led to greater specialisation of production, so changing the ability and incentive for producers to supply certain foods relative to others. Second, the shift has affected farmgate prices (both up and down), so creating opportunities for the industries which purchase farm commodities (the food consuming industries – FCIs) to substitute lower priced ingredients, thereby influencing the nutritional quality and content of foods available in the marketplace. Third, it has increased the ability of the FCIs to “add value” through product innovation and marketing, creating a market characterised by highly differentiated products targeted to individualised preferences, thus increasing the acceptability of a wider variety and quantity of food products.     

Ethics of care and co‐worker relationships in UK banks

Utilising an analytical framework based on an ethics of care approach, this article examines the changing nature of co‐worker relationships in UK banks under the rise of performance management practices. It illustrates that with the implementation of performance management practices in general, and electronic performance management monitoring in bank branches in particular, co‐worker relationships have become increasingly objectified, resulting in disconnected and conflict‐ridden forms of engagement. The analysis reveals the multi‐layered and necessarily complex nature of co‐worker relationships in a changing technologically driven work environment and highlights the possibilities for people to defend the capacity to care for others from the erosive tendencies of individualised processes.     

Does reputation enhance response rates?

Declining response rates and the potential for deterioration in the quality of survey data require reconsideration of the role of incentives to participate in interviews. This article argues that the strategies associated with linking public goods to private goods to establish reputation effects for the private goods involved can also be used to enhance confidence in the objectives of the request for an interview. In this literature, an assured reputation is established for those selling products by offering to contribute some of the proceeds of a sale to charity. The results of our field experiment indicate that combining charity with financial incentives appears to increase confidence in survey objectives for those familiar with the interview process.