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.     

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.     

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.     

Has the Boom in Incapacity Benefit Claimant Numbers Passed Its Peak?*

Just over 2.5 million people of working age were on the incapacity benefit register in Great Britain in 2006, twice as many as 15 years earlier, and we explore the factors contributing to that huge growth. Using a simple model linking ‘inflow’ to the size of the register via a pair of persistence parameters (‘short’ and ‘long’ term), we show that the principal driver of numbers up to the mid‐1990s was inflow, but since then it has been the steep rise in ‘average duration’ from below four to more than six years. For women the lengthening time on the register mainly reflects a rise in short‐term persistence (survival on the register from one to two years), whilst for men the increase in long‐term persistence (survival on the register after two years) was more important. We also use the model to discuss the likelihood that the British government will achieve its target of reducing incapacity benefit numbers by 1 million by 2016.     

Unidimensional measurement and structural equation models with latent variables

This article considers various methods for constructing sets of multiple indicators that measures one and only one trait, i.e., unidimensional measurement. The article compares two procedures for constructing unidimensional measures: the modification index and tests designed specifically for assessing unidimensionality. The specific tests were shown to work better than the modification indices.