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The Succession Process from a Resource and Knowledge-Based View of the Family Firm
Abstract
A major challenge facing the family firm is the succession process. One reason for this challenge might involve the successor's ability to acquire the predecessor's key knowledge and skills adequately to maintain and improve the organizational performance of the firm. This paper uses two theoretical approaches from the strategic management field to explore this critical process and analyze how it can be managed effectively: the resource-based theory of the firm and the emergent knowledge-based view. This conceptual framework provides a powerful tool for understanding the nature and transfer of knowledge within the family business, which becomes the basis for developing competitive advantage over nonfamily businesses.
... By its nature, family businesses tend to adopt a long-term orientation to preserve wealth for future generations, so they tend to obtain better performance results than non-family businesses (Briano-Turrent et al., 2023;Adomako et al., 2019). Likewise, transferring knowledge, experience, and skills between generations is a fundamental aspect of the continuity and success of family businesses in terms of profitability, growth, and adaptation to change (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001). ...
... Various authors confirm through their empirical findings that the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and experience is essential for the success and continuity of family businesses (Bruce et al., 2023;Kim & Park, 2020;Alves & Matias, 2020;Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001). Likewise, those who achieve an adequate transfer of unique skills and knowledge between generations tend to perform better in profitability, growth, and adaptation to change. ...
Objective: This study aims to analyze the influence of gender and experience on adopting technology and sustainable practices in Latin American family businesses and determine the impact on their performance. Theoretical Framework: The focus of the company's resources and dynamic capabilities is on the influence of technological and sustainable capabilities on company performance and how the characteristics of the family business influence the ability to adapt. Method: The analysis was carried out using a structural equation model and a database of 11,169 micro, small, and medium-sized family enterprises from 17 Latin American countries. A Likert scale questionnaire was sent to company owners and/or managers via email, telephone, or social network applications. Results and Discussion: The gender of the manager and the organizational experience influence the use of ICTs and the implementation of digitalization strategies. Likewise, sustainability and digitalization strategies have a positive impact on company performance. Research implications: It is critical to develop public policies that drive the sustainability of family businesses as a viable strategy to address environmental challenges and ensure sustained economic growth. Also, the owners and managers of these companies must allocate resources to develop digital transformation capacities, integrating ICT to optimize business models and strengthen each link in the value chain. Originality/Value: This study enhances the family business literature by examining how organizational experience and gender affect key performance factors like digitalization and sustainability. The large, diverse sample strengthens the results' representativeness and applicability across different contexts.
... Knowledge transfer is, in this sense, a critical factor for the sustainability and development of legacy in family businesses (Boyd et al., 2015;Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Letonja et al., 2021;Pipatanantakurn & Ractham, 2022). The literature highlights the importance of knowledge transfer between generations as a determinant of success (Boyd et al., 2015;Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Schmidt & Muehlfeld, 2017). ...
... Knowledge transfer is, in this sense, a critical factor for the sustainability and development of legacy in family businesses (Boyd et al., 2015;Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Letonja et al., 2021;Pipatanantakurn & Ractham, 2022). The literature highlights the importance of knowledge transfer between generations as a determinant of success (Boyd et al., 2015;Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Schmidt & Muehlfeld, 2017). This includes not only the transfer of technical skills and expertise, but also the transmission of tacit knowledge, values, and traditions that are unique to the family business (Le Breton-Miller et al., 2004;Le Breton-Miller & Miller, 2016). ...
The current study aims to determine the meaning and the role of legacy in the development of family businesses from the perspective of multigenerational family businesses. Employing Thematic Analysis (TA) and Gioia methodology, the transcript of in-depth interviews with representatives of five family businesses, from different industries (military products and wine, banking and jewelry) were analyzed and checked against the literature. The findings show that legacy is a complex process that evolves not only from its core elements, but as a part of business involvement in society. According to these elements, there are four patterns of legacy, namely legacy of knowledge, legacy of values, legacy of relationships, and legacy of contribution to society. These four patterns of legacy determine a specific type of doing business: “Sustainability Stewards”, “Knowhow Handover”, “Values Inheritance”, and “Intergenerational Blueprint”. Each type corresponds to a unique approach to managing and preserving the legacy within the family business. A set of best practices that family businesses seeking to consolidate their legacy is proposed as a practical value of this study.
... The tacit knowledge has broad implications for understanding the difficulty of imitating and diffusing individual skills (Kogut and Zander, 1992). However, Cabrera-Suarez et al. (2001) suggest that tacit knowledge embedded in the founder is a strategic asset that a family firm can develop and transfer more effectively than a non-family firm. The reason is that in the case of a family business, there is a special relationship between the successor and predecessor that reaches beyond enterprise and includes personal and family matters. ...
... The concept of familiness in family businesses, as described by Habbershon and Williams (1999), refers to the unique set of resources and capabilities resulting from family involvement. Cabrera-Suarez et al. (2001) suggest that factors such as high family member commitment, shared responsibility, customer trust, quality perceptions, and exclusive technological or commercial expertise can contribute to a competitive edge. ...
Family Businesses account for a significant portion of business life in the Latin World. Thus, they need a theory based on dynamic processes of culture, religion, identity, and networking concepts– such as Familismo, Simpatia, Fama, and Solidaridad. We assume those constructs are at the centre of every family business in the Latin Nexus. Our research will establish a more profound understanding of the Latin Family Business in theoretical and empirical terms. Knowledge Reservoir — Familismo, Connectedness — Simpatia, Organisation Identity — Fama, and Social Embeddedness — Solidaridad will be the core concepts in our study but will not necessarily lead to our results. The study involves conceptualising a theory of Latino family businesses (LFBs). Conceptual research primarily relies on theoretical frameworks, models, and considerations. In our study, we utilised mapping techniques to illustrate how individuals conceptualise the interrelationships among various ideas. Both concept and mind maps underscore the importance of visual representations in conveying experience, knowledge, perception, or memory. Consequently, our research incorporated concept maps/tables and mind maps. These methods will bring revelatory insights into originality and scientific utility and define the LFB. This paper’s principal contribution lies in formulating propositions that aim to simplify and elucidate key constructs — namely, Fama, Familismo, Simpatia, and Solidaridad — within a middle-range theory of LFB, employing a modelling-as-theorising approach to define the LFB.
... Given family firms' focus on the past as well as their focus on key family firm figures (Suddaby et al., 2023;Villani et al., 2024), this interaction might be particularly crucial within family firms (Cabrera-Suárez, Saá-Pérez, & García-Almeida, 2001;Handler, 1990). Collaborating with the predecessor can provide new family CEOs with critical tacit knowledge of the organization and a network that would otherwise be difficult to obtain (Chirico & Salvato, 2008;Minichilli et al., 2014). ...
... Fully in (1): CEOs have a high-quality relationship with their predecessor, influencing their interaction by facilitating shared management and exchange. Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Minichilli et al., 2014 Control release by predecessor ...
How new family CEOs use the structural setup they initially find to foster post-succession change in their family firms remains a theoretical and practical puzzle. Building on strategic change and family succession insights, we draw upon 74 interviews from 43 intra-family CEO successions to employ a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. We reveal three change-enabling solutions (authority, empowerment, and alignment) and develop a model of how new family CEOs navigate different structural setups. We add configurational insights to strategic change research in entrepreneurial organizations such as family firms, extend knowledge on new CEO power, and provide contingency factors to the role of new CEO distance.
... His work demonstrates the complexity of the process in light of the financial and strategic issues related to the company's structure. However, a multi-case analysis would help strengthen the external validity of the results (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001). Indeed, while the qualitative methodology adopted offers detail, the limited sample somewhat reduces generalization. ...
... While pioneering work helped establish conceptual foundations, we have seen that some limitations still need to be addressed, such as often-modest samples and underexplored psychosociological aspects. In addition, quantitative analyses could be complemented by longitudinal qualitative approaches to comprehend the complexity of these evolving systems, as suggested by the integrative systemic modeling work of Cabrera-Suárez et al. (2001) and Kotlar et al. (2013). ...
This paper presents a systematic review and critical analysis of the literature on the dynamics and challenges of family businesses in Algeria from 2008 to 2023. Over 150 publications were identified through searches of significant databases, covering definitions, characteristics, succession processes, governance, performance, growth, internationalization, entrepreneurship, innovation, and perspectives related to Algerian family firms. The research provided critical conceptual foundations and empirical insights but often remained siloed without fully integrated, dynamic, or comparative perspectives. The review is structured around six thematic areas. Within each, critical contributions and limitations of prior work are examined in depth. The synthesis shows that initial studies established conceptual bases, but constraints like small samples, isolated case studies, and compartmentalized methodologies limited generalizability. In the future, more cross-sectional, longitudinal, multi-sited research combining heterogeneous data and disciplines is needed to develop a comprehensive, actionable understanding of family business realities in Algeria.
... Family business succession has garnered considerable attention from both researchers and managers in recent decades (Marques et al., 2022;Miller et al., 2003;Mokhber et al., 2017). While numerous studies have underscored the competitive advantages of family firms, such as their unique company culture (Chua et al., 1999;Marques et al., 2022;Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2005;Rovelli et al., 2022), others have highlighted the challenges they face, including conflicts between family members and limited resources (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001). ...
... Given the complexities surrounding succession in family businesses (Acs et al., 2018;Dekker et al., 2015), consultants often recommend adopting a family constitution, preferably during the founder's lifetime, to ensure a seamless, conflict-free transition to the next generation (Sathe et al., 2022). Successful succession entails a smooth transfer of leadership and ownership (Pyromalis & Vozikis, 2009;Thevenard-Puthod, 2022), accompanied by positive company performance and robust business viability (Le Breton-Miller et al., 2004;Marques et al., 2022), alongside stakeholder satisfaction with the successor (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Sathe et al., 2022;Steier, 2001). While significant strides have been made in addressing the challenges faced by family firms, numerous contributions to the literature remain constrained by limitations, many of which are prevalent across different contexts, including emerging economies. ...
Family businesses are increasingly recognized for their significance in the global economy, constituting a growing portion of companies worldwide and elevating the importance of this topic on governmental agendas. Unique challenges confront family firms, intertwining business decisions with familial repercussions. Among these challenges, the succession process emerges as a critical threat to their continuity. Inadequate solutions to the question of succession often lead to organizational failure, underscoring the urgency of addressing this issue. This study endeavors to construct an analysis model to support decision-makers throughout the succession journey, integrating a constructivist approach that merges cognitive mapping and interpretive structural modeling (ISM). This dual methodology facilitates the swift identification and analysis of factors crucial for smoother family business succession. The model development leverages insights from an expert panel and entails delineating cause-and-effect relationships among identified determinants and prioritizing these factors based on their significance. Subsequently, the model undergoes validation through a consolidation session with experts from the Associação de Empresas Familiares (i.e., Family Business Association in Portuguese), who assess its practical applicability. This includes perspectives from a Brazilian expert renowned for his understanding of family business dynamics within an emerging economy—Brazil. The insights gleaned from these sessions inform recommendations on implementing the tested procedures within real-life family enterprises, thereby contributing to the sustainability and longevity of these businesses.
... It is influenced by perception which includes situational factors, subconscious heuristics, and emotions (Gilovich & Griffin, 2002;Kahneman & Tversky, 1979;Slovic, 2000). In accordance with the "health belief model," a prominent framework for health interventions, the likelihood of an individual changing their behavior to prevent illness hinges on a process where the individual must hold the belief that they are susceptible to the disease, acknowledge that the disease's occurrence could have specific consequences in their life, and recognize that adopting such behavior would be advantageous for them (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001). ...
Health holds immense importance in our lives, affecting multiple dimensions of our well-being and life satisfaction. The significance of well-being in our lives cannot be overstated, influencing diverse facets of our overall health and life satisfaction. A cautious and health-conscious approach often leads to better psychological well-being because it impacts our ability to pursue our dreams, enjoy daily activities, and contribute to meaningful society. The paper is focused on to examine the relationship between health-risk attitude and psychological well-being. A total of 132 samples (age between 18 and 45) were collected by using convenience sampling method. Sociodemographic details, 13 items Health-Risk Attitude Scale (HRAS-13), and 18 items Ryff Psychological well-being were used to collect data. Results show that based on standardized coefficient, autonomy comes in second place to positive relation with others (0.336) as the most significant variables to extract health-risk mindset (0.296). Individual perception toward health can impact their overall psychological well-being. It empowers individuals to take charge of their health, enables effective health interventions, and contributes to building healthier and happier communities. Prioritizing health through a balanced lifestyle, regular exercise, proper nutrition, and mental well-being strategies is essential for a fulfilling and purposeful life.
... The relationship between family dynamics and succession outcomes is well-documented in the literature. According to Cabrera-Suárez, De Saá-Pérez, and García-Almeida (2001), the strength of family bonds and the presence of open communication channels are fundamental to ensuring smooth leadership transitions. When family members share strong relationships and communicate effectively, they are more likely to work together harmoniously during the succession process. ...
This study explores the complex interplay of psychological, emotional, and cultural factors in succession planning within family businesses, aiming to provide insights and strategies for effective leadership transitions. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating qualitative interviews with family business leaders and quantitative surveys of 300 family businesses. This design allows for a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of successful succession planning. The findings highlight the critical roles of psychological readiness and emotional commitment in succession processes. Leaders' willingness to relinquish control and successors' emotional investment were pivotal for smooth transitions. Cultural differences also significantly influenced succession practices, with Western businesses favoring formalized, merit-based approaches and Eastern businesses emphasizing family harmony. The study underscores the importance of continuous succession planning and inclusive decision-making processes. The study's insights inform practical strategies for family business owners, advisors, and policymakers. Emphasizing early involvement and mentorship, culturally sensitive practices, and continuous planning can enhance the effectiveness of succession planning, ensuring the long-term sustainability of family businesses.
... These mechanisms enhance interactions between family and business realms, allowing family members to engage simultaneously in both contexts. This integration not only strengthens relationships of trust within the family and with external stakeholders (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001;Chirico, 2008) but also ensures the company's economic viability and legitimacy (Neubauer and Lank, 1999). These governance tools and bodies establish rules that govern family involvement within the company and oversee policies on information, training, participation, investment, and capital (Mustakallio et al., 2002;Chrisman et al., 2007). ...
This study aims to understand the factors that influence the adoption of managerial control and human resource management systems in family firms, and the relationship with professionalisation. Using a sample of 427 family SMEs, we found that the adoption of MCSs and HRMSs in small and medium-sized family firms is influenced by firm variables, precisely size, and strategic complexity. In addition, the role of size and strategic complexity is not limited to the adoption of MCSs and HRMSs, but also affects the professionalization of family SMEs, that is the involvement of professional managers. At the same time, professionalisation positively impacts the adoption of MCSs, also acting as a mediator of size and strategic complexity in adopting these formal systems in family SMEs. Finally, a further variable that we have found to positively influence the adoption of MCSs and HRMSs is that of family governance bodies, thus cementing the critical role of the family in the adoption of formal managerial systems.
... Moreover, little is known about why some family firms are more successful in corporate entrepreneurship than others (Nordqvist, 2005). Some studies have found that family firms are reluctant to undertake new ventures (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001), take risks (Morris, 1998), or support change (Levinson, 1989), while others have found that family firms that invest in and support entrepreneurship have higher performance potential (McCann et al., 2001). On the other hand, recent studies have developed a corporate entrepreneurship perspective specific to the family firm (Kellermanns & Eddleston, 2006). ...
Abstract
The “VUCA world” is an environment characterized by unprecedented levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). In such a turbulent environment, corporate entrepreneurship is key for all businesses, especially family firms. Corporate entrepreneurship is a concept that enables innovation, growth, and competitive advantage over competitors. It is a driving force for organizations to make changes in their structures and operations to respond to changes by using the limited resources they have in the environments in which they operate and to reduce the negative effects of shortening product life cycles. Family firms, which have an important place in the economies of countries, are indispensable players in economic activities, they need to think more strategically, and innovative and have an entrepreneurial perspective in ensuring their adaptation for competitive and growth purposes. In this study, the relationship between the place of family firms in the VUCA world and corporate entrepreneurship was tried to be established, and the corporate entrepreneurship of family firms was examined in line with their corporate logic. For this purpose, the news on the corporate websites of seven family companies operating in Türkiye and included in the 2023 Family Business Index was analyzed by content analysis method. Data were coded with thematic coding and findings were revealed. Common types of logic in family firms are market logic and efficiency and savings logic, with a hybrid characteristic consisting of a combination of market logic and efficiency and savings logic.
Keywords: Family Firm, VUCA, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Entrepreneuship, Türkiye
... In this sense, family-owned small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should consider joining a "coopetitive" network to establish long-lasting relationships, enhance social connections, and exchange valuable information, particularly on succession strategies, which are a prevalent concern and challenge for family businesses [127]. "Coopetition" [116] refers to collaborating with competitors in highly innovative, dynamic, and complex industries. ...
The objective of this research was to provide a review of the state-of-the-art literature related to sustainability and digitalization in SMEs to identify current trends and future perspectives within this vital sector. The focus is on German SMEs, which are considered benchmarks, given these firms’ critical role in the country’s economy and job market. A total of 55 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed with the support of the Atlas TI 24.1 software package, focusing on definitions, frameworks, research questions, hypotheses, primary findings, and direct reports from interviewees. Major current trends were identified, clustered in two groups: (1) digitalization, digital transformation, Industry 4.0, and performance; and (2) sustainability, innovation, entrepreneurship, and risk management. Three future perspectives were identified: disseminating digitalization in the market; incorporating sustainability into business models; and increasing investments in government support programs. While the study is focused on German SMEs, its findings are applicable to similar economies within the European Union and can serve as a reference for developing countries’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). This research advances knowledge on how SMEs play a critical role in the context of sustainability and digitalization, both now and in the future.
Purpose
This study examines how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mediates the relationship between Transgenerational Entrepreneurship (TE) and Financial Performance (FP) in family businesses. Specifically, it explores how community-, environment-, and employee-oriented CSR initiatives, along with the TE dimensions of family relationships, family entrepreneurship, and future generations, shape long-term success.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a cross-sectional dataset of 1,560 family firms from multiple regions, the study employs Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the links between TE, CSR, and FP. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) validate the constructs. Control variables include CEO demographics, governance structures, firm size, industry, and geographic region.
Findings
Results indicate that CSR significantly mediates the TE–FP relationship. Community-oriented CSR increases stakeholder trust and loyalty, environmental CSR enhances efficiency and public perception, and employee-oriented CSR fosters workforce commitment and productivity. Family entrepreneurship and the development of future generations emerge as key drivers of both CSR engagement and improved financial outcomes, highlighting the synergistic effect of entrepreneurial continuity and socially responsible practices.
Originality/value
By integrating CSR and TE into a unified framework, this study clarifies how family firms can leverage entrepreneurial legacies to implement socially responsible initiatives, thereby aligning profitability with broader societal and environmental obligations. The findings offer practical guidance for family businesses seeking to maintain competitiveness and resilience across generations.
Purpose
Micro and small businesses are run by entrepreneurs who have established businesses. However, conflicts often arose when transitioning these businesses to the next generations. This had been a challenge for most family-run companies. The succession of business without conflict to the next generation for healthy sustenance and continuance during the transition period had been a significant issue to be addressed. Therefore, this study aims to explore the challenges and strategies associated with family business succession in technology-dominant sectors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors in this study empirically investigated the phenomenon of the three-circle model (TCM) and the three spiral theory (TST). The authors conducted a Focus Group Discussion with the founders and the second generation. In total, 22 founders were part of the focused group discussion (FGD), while 26 s-generation potential business inheritors were also part of FGD. Two FGDs comprises only founders, and two FGDs comprises inheritors separately. In addition, two FGDs consisting of founders and inheritors. The data was content analyzed for themes using NVIVO.
Findings
The study revealed that successful generational transition in technology-based family businesses required inheritance to have both business acumen and technical skills. A key challenge was to balance the ownership within the family. Clear governance structures and role boundaries were essential to minimize family conflicts. In addition, maintaining core values and adapting to technological changes were found to be crucial. Strategies to address ownership dilution, professional mentoring and regulatory compliance emerged as important drivers for sustainable succession.
Research limitations/implications
Integration of TCM and TST frameworks was required in family business succession, particularly in technology-enabled contexts. Moreover, existing theories and frameworks needed to be evolved to account for the dynamic nature of technology in family businesses.
Practical implications
India, as an emerging nation, required more successful examples of succession planning. The study insights would help family business owners to better manage their succession planning by integrating TCM and TST practically.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was one of the first sets of studies on micro and small technology business succession planning. Most research on family businesses relied on the TCM framework. By integrating the two frameworks of TCM and TST, the current study provided a fresh perspective.
This article aims to improve the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by advancing human capital development. Both internal and external factors influence the competitiveness of SMEs, according to a systematic literature evaluation of 52 studies from 2000 to 2022. Human capital, which includes the knowledge, skills, and talents of entrepreneurs, managers, and employees, is a crucial strategic asset for SMEs to navigate the competitive landscape. The framework includes strategic HRM practices for talent acquisition, entrepreneurial leadership for innovation, a culture of learning and knowledge management, and the use of networks and social capital. The research enhances understanding of SME competitiveness and provides critical insights for formulating targeted strategies and interventions. Future studies should include empirical studies in various SME situations and an examination of the interaction between internal and external competitiveness factors.
Shifting the attention from temporary to enduring competitive advantage, we theorize that family control of a business is a source of family-specific isolating mechanisms. These isolating mechanisms are based on path-dependent, socially complex, and inseparable resources that jointly enhance family firms’ ability to sustain competitive advantages vis-à-vis nonfamily firms. Longitudinal analyses of S&P 1500 manufacturing firms show that family firms are more likely to sustain superior performance than nonfamily firms. We also find that competitive advantages last longer in family firms that are older, have more family members involved, and a higher level of family ownership.
This study examines the performance consequences of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) successions, focusing on the types of board chairs and firm ownership structures. While CEO successions can bring adaptation benefits and performance gains through strategic realignment, they can also cause disruption costs and performance losses by disturbing stakeholder relationships. We examine how the presence of a predecessor CEO or an independent individual as board chair affects postsuccession performance differently depending on the level of family control. Our analysis of a panel dataset of S&P 1500 firms from 2003 to 2022 and a series of robustness tests provide strong support for our predictions. We found that with increasing family control, predecessor CEOs as board chairs have a more positive effect on postsuccession performance, while the opposite holds true for independent board chairs. Further, within family-controlled firms, the effect of predecessor retention is stronger for outside than inside CEO successions. Our findings expand CEO succession and board chair research by demonstrating that the value of a board chair type after a CEO succession depends on a firm’s ownership structure, particularly the degree of family control.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to uncover thematic areas that highlight the role of knowledge management in the family business literature. Despite the proliferation of literature on the intersection of knowledge management and family business over the past two decades, we lack an understanding of why knowledge management is unique in the context of family firms and how knowledge management is introduced and implemented. The relatively sparse systematic review studies on the topic are surprising as they facilitate the theory-building process by mapping existing thematic areas of research and uncovering open research gaps.
Design/methodology/approach
Aiming to review the literature on knowledge management in family businesses and identify gaps, the authors conducted a systematic literature review to examine 72 articles on the intersection of knowledge management and family business.
Findings
Thematic analysis of the selected articles revealed five key themes: succession, entrepreneurial behaviour, trust, enablers and barriers and outcomes of knowledge management. The authors synthesize the findings into a conceptual framework and propose future research directions to enhance understanding in the family business context.
Research limitations/implications
The authors conclude by elucidating the study’s limitations and theoretical implications. The key implication is that family businesses can leverage knowledge management to ensure successful inter-generational knowledge transfer and foster an entrepreneurial culture that shapes innovation and risk-taking.
Practical implications
Trust among internal and external stakeholders can hasten the transfer of knowledge and mitigate knowledge hiding.
Originality/value
The authors synthesise the findings into a conceptual framework. The authors propose future research directions to enhance understanding in the family business context and conclude by elucidating the study’s limitations and theoretical implications.
Previous research shows that family businesses are ideal candidates for contributing to the sustainable development of society due to characteristic features such as their transgenerational aspirations. Additionally, many studies suggest that new technologies may be an antecedent to the improvement of companies' sustainability performance. The aim of this paper is to understand how the digitalization of business strategy contributes to improving the sustainability performance of family businesses. Also, recognizing the wide heterogeneity among family businesses, we assess how the ownership and corporate governance structures of the family business condition the relationship between strategy digitalization and family business sustainability performance. We test our hypotheses using the STEP Project Global Consortium database of family businesses from multiple economic sectors around the world. The results obtained confirm that the digitalization of strategy has a direct positive effect on family business sustainability performance, while the moderating effects of ownership and corporate governance structures act in opposite directions: family ownership negatively influences the impact of the digitalization of strategy on family business sustainability performance, but corporate governance structures positively moderate its effect. Our findings suggest that family businesses need to carefully balance ownership dynamics and corporate governance structures to maximize the sustainability benefits of business strategy digitalization. These insights can guide family business members, advisors, and policymakers in creating more effective strategies to enhance sustainability performance.
Purpose
The article aims to measure the effect of innovation obstacles on the probability of patenting by using an integrative framework that considers a variety of financial and non-financial obstacles and emphasizes the role of firm ownership in moderating the effect of obstacles on innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis exploits a sample of 6,772 European manufacturing firms from the period 2007–2011, integrating data from the EFIGE survey with the Orbis Intellectual Property (Orbis IP) dataset from Bureau van Dijk. In terms of methodology, we carry out the analysis by applying a logistic regression with standard errors clustered at country level.
Findings
Results indicate that financial and non-financial obstacles negatively impact innovation. We also find that family firms have a lower probability of applying for a patent compared to non-family firms. Moreover, when considering the effect of each obstacle, the evidence varies depending on the firm’s ownership. The negative effect is more pronounced for non-FFs regarding market and regulation obstacles and organizational rigidities. However, it is weakly significant for lack of qualified personnel and information on technology. The perception of economic risks and the lack of suitable financial resources consistently impact businesses, regardless of ownership.
Originality/value
We contribute to the existing literature in a twofold way. First, by considering firm patenting activity as an innovation profile, we provide new insights into the obstacles that hinder the patent process, while previous research instead focused on product and process innovation or broader innovation activities. Second, we evaluate whether the influence of innovation obstacles is dependent upon the firm’s ownership structure. No previous research has provided evidence on this issue.
Purpose
Using the resource-based view (RBV), our study aims to provide theoretical and empirical insights into blockchain capabilities’ (BCs) compounded and sequential effects on supply chain competitive advantages (CA).
Design/methodology/approach
We combined a systematic literature review and an expert interview. Interpretive Structural Modelling and a Matrix of Cross-Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification were used to determine the relationship between the capabilities. Simple Additive Weighting assessed each capability’s relative importance and impact.
Findings
We reveal a sequential development path for BCs. Foundational capabilities, such as cybersecurity, provide immediate performance benefits, establishing a unique, valuable and inimitable resource. As firms progress to advanced capabilities, the compounded value of these capabilities generates a stronger, dynamic resource for sustained CA. Moreover, the study underscores the strategic importance of timing in adopting and developing BCs, as early adoption can secure a competitive edge difficult for later entrants to replicate.
Practical implications
Our proposed framework guides managers in incorporating blockchain technology into supply chain management (SCM) processes once it demonstrates that firms can enhance their CA by prioritizing the technical basics BC, leveraging the informational capabilities in level two and enabling effective problem-solving through level three. Our framework also shows that a learning process occurs as BCs are used and their results are explored.
Originality/value
Our study extends the RBV by demonstrating BCs’ cumulative and interdependent nature in SCM. It emphasizes the synergistic interactions between these capabilities, which collectively enhance CA.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of human capital investment (HCI) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in SMEs. Analysing a sample of 1,136 firms (729 FBs and 407 NFBs) and using a PLS-PM methodology, our results support that HCI has a favourable impact on CSR practices in SMEs and that family business (FB) status plays a moderating role on these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
We estimate the proposed model using partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM), a variance-based structural equation (SEM) method, using SmartPLS 3.3 software. PLS simultaneously evaluates the reliability and validity of the variables (external model) and the estimation of the trajectories between these constructs (internal model). The PLS-PM technique is appropriate in this research because: 1. the model makes use of type A composites; 2. the proposed research model has some complexity since we pay attention to the existence of moderating effects; and 3. no specific distribution is required in PLS indicators.
Findings
The main findings of this study are: (1) HCI increases CSR practices in the SME context and (2) FB status exerts a positive influence on the relationship between HCI and CSR practices.
Research limitations/implications
This study, grounded in RBV theory and the concept of “familiness,” uses employees' education and training to measure HCI in FBs. While other research focuses on employee competence and attitude to define HCI, future studies should explore all these elements to better understand their impact on CSR practices in SMEs. Additionally, factors like regulation, organisational culture and personal traits may influence the relationship between HCI and CSR practices, suggesting the need for further research. Future studies could also examine family SMEs by considering aspects such as family management or governance as moderating variables, contributing to the discussion on FB heterogeneity. Causes of heterogeneity in FBs include goals, governance structures and resources, supporting recent calls for a deeper understanding of these variations, particularly in how HCI affects CSR practices.
Practical implications
This study also highlights several practical contributions. Today’s complex business environment requires organisations to focus on a wide range of stakeholders to remain sustainable. Organisations must understand how HCI influences CSR practices, specifically how education and training for both employees and managers lead to greater sustainable practices. Therefore, awareness and training for family employees, CEOs and external staff are essential for the proper development of CSR practices. Increased education or training programs by public and private institutions or incentive schemes could help promote these practices within firms. Our results further suggest that governments and other organisations interested in business development should not assume that HCI is universally beneficial for CSR practices in all firms. Specifically, the study shows that HCI has a positive effect on different dimensions of CSR in SMEs, and this influence is even more pronounced in family SMEs. Therefore, government agencies and employers' associations should consider the impact of these factors—HCI and FB status—when designing and implementing more effective policies.
Social implications
This study makes several theoretical contributions. It explores the influence of HCI on multiple dimensions of CSR, focusing on individual-level drivers like education and training for managers and employees. The findings reveal that HCI positively affects environmental, labour and social CSR practices, especially in SMEs. The study also highlights the unique role of FBs, showing that FB status strengthens the relationship between HCI and CSR due to their focus on long-term goals and community well-being. This research addresses gaps in understanding the heterogeneity of CSR practices between FBs and non-family businesses (NFBs).
Originality/value
This article is original, unpublished and all sources and contributions have been properly acknowledged.
Purpose
As the knowledge-based theory of the firm suggests, integrating leadership knowledge from non-family sources may be paramount in building competitive advantage, and leadership knowledge is an invaluable resource in building successful firms. In the volatile business environment, AI developments are among the key drivers of several thorough transformations, so the possible relationship between top management business talent and AI readiness has become essential. Our paper examines this link in the family business context, analyzing the possible mediation role of firm professionalization.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopted a quantitative research approach. Data about Hungarian family firms were collected during March and April 2024. The authors used structural equation modeling, and results with and without controlling for a firm size and sector effect were compared. The final sample size contained 112 family firms.
Findings
The research findings suggest that the identified personal professionalization subdimensions have different mediation roles in the relationship between external knowledge integration in top management teams and AI readiness. Without including the control variables, the personal development and competence absorption subdimensions fully mediate this relationship, and the delegation subdimension does not have a significant mediation role. These two mediation effects become significantly weaker with the inclusion of firm size and sector control variables.
Research limitations/implications
The results highlight the importance of competence absorption and development in family firms, especially when preparing for AI integration into business processes. In addition, the findings also emphasize that firm size may have a significant role in creating an AI-compatible business environment.
Originality/value
This paper aims to integrate the evolving field of firm professionalization with research on the effects of family involvement in corporate leadership. Professionalization dimensions are defined, and mediation roles of personal professionalization subdimensions are examined concerning the relationship between external knowledge integration in top management teams and AI readiness. The paper also highlights several new research directions that may enhance understanding the relationship between family leadership involvement and corporate outcomes.
Purpose
This study examines how executive directors of family business centers deploy sensemaking to create psychologically safe environments while engaging members in peer group activities.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study approach was employed, involving semi-structured interviews with five executive directors from four different family business centers in the USA. The study also draws on document analysis.
Findings
The findings reveal that these directors navigate a complex and uncertain environment where the need for member engagement and the need for a safe environment sometimes contradict each other. Their sensemaking draws on both cognitive and social processes to accomplish meaning-making, often involving a cyclical process of noticing, discernment and enactment. This effort is, at times, constrained by the directors’ inability to gather cues due to their commitment to maintaining confidentiality and privacy within peer groups, limiting their ability to directly observe discussions. Despite this constraint, sensemaking enhances the directors’ capability to foster safe and engaging environments, though the challenge of balancing members’ needs for confidentiality with a safe and productive engagement environment remains a continuous reality.
Practical implications
This study highlights the crucial role of sensemaking leadership in family business networks, requiring directors to balance individual and group needs. Leadership development should focus on enhancing this sensemaking ability. Family business centers must be designed with flexibility and adaptability to accommodate evolving needs. This involves attentive observation, balanced programs, psychological safety and continuous learning. These findings extend to any peer group requiring high trust, emphasizing the leader’s role in creating a safe and engaging environment that balances individual needs with collective goals.
Originality/value
This study makes several original contributions to the literature. First, it extends existing knowledge on sensemaking by exploring its application in a previously under-researched context: how executive directors navigate complexity and uncertainty within family business networks. Second, it examines how sensemaking informs the ongoing challenge of balancing peer groups’ need for a safe engagement environment with the need for productive engagement, an area that has not been explicitly addressed in prior research. By shedding light on these under-explored aspects of sensemaking, this study offers valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners involved in family business networks and peer group management.
Purpose
This study examines the impact of corporate governance on succession planning and organizational performance. Drawing on agency theory, the main purpose of this study is to identify the effect of corporate governance on succession planning by measuring the different characteristics of the board of directors.
Design/methodology/approach
This multi-quantitative research used primary and archival data. A total of 281 valid questionnaires were collected from Chinese listed family firms to gauge succession planning. Relevant archival data were obtained to measure board characteristics and organizational performance. All hypotheses were examined through structural equation modeling.
Findings
The outcomes indicate that corporate governance positively influences succession planning and, in turn, boosts superior organizational performance, which uncovers the mediating effect of succession planning on the relationship between corporate governance and organizational performance. Our findings reveal that board independence and education facilitate the development of succession planning, which is crucial in the family business’s life cycle.
Originality/value
The results of this study contribute to management succession, strategic management and leadership research by demonstrating how corporate governance fosters organizational performance through succession planning, thereby expanding the application scenarios of agency theory in family firms. Additionally, the article also enriches our understanding of how family businesses apply sound governance structures to promote organizational strategic decision-making during the succession process.
This study aims to explore how augmented reality (AR) and a company’s unique resources optimize competitive advantage to improve marketing performance using a qualitative approach with triangulated in-depth interviews. The findings of this study revolve around three main themes: improving marketing performance, improving competitiveness, and strengthening customer relationships. The results show that AR in this study provides unique added value that is different from competitors and strengthens deeper interactions between batik products and customers. The theoretical contribution of this study connects the Resource Based View (RBV) theory with the application of augmented reality to the marketing of small and creative traditional batik industries, connecting unique resources, namely the cultural value of batik products, to improve marketing performance through optimizing competitive advantages, thereby strengthening relationships with customers. Intangible assets such as customer relationships are optimized for competitiveness and marketing performance optimization. In addition, this study provides practical implications for practitioners in the batik industry to utilize AR as an effective marketing tool to assist in making strategic decisions regarding technology investment and product development to improve marketing performance through optimizing its resources for competitiveness.
Purpose
The study investigated which variables and family dynamics influence the entrepreneurship and succession process in the Italian ice cream sector. In light of the consequences of Covid-19, the research has identified the elements on which female leadership is based.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using the qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews at a homemade ice cream production organization.
Findings
Findings highlight that to pursue business longevity, one must maintain one’s family identity and values and, therefore, offer quality products. However, the company must know how to innovate to remain competitive and optimize its processes. All this is possible by creating a dialogue and transferring knowledge within the family business to strengthen and prepare future successors. The analysis of the family structure highlights how cultural family identity has privileged gender identity as a factor that has guided the development process since the first generation, in this case, allowing for expansion in terms of size and family. In addition, the results of the analysis highlighted two distinct scenarios within the same case study: the first emphasises the limits of the lack of management of a succession process; the second shows the openness of the organization to the introduction of innovations, expansion strategies and the entry of new partners outside the family.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the knowledge and understanding of how, in light of the pandemic, the resilience of these family businesses contributes to redesigning their internal governance system in favour of the second generation and effectively accelerating the succession process.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors influencing successful and unsuccessful succession in Pakistani family-owned businesses (FOBs), with a focus on the interplay between formal governance practices and socio-cultural dynamics. By examining key elements in succession planning and leadership transition, the study offers insights tailored to the unique challenges faced by FOBs in emerging markets such as Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a multiple case study approach, this research examines generational transitions across ten Pakistani FOBs. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with key family members involved in the succession process, with thematic analysis applied to identify patterns.
Findings
The findings indicate that proactive succession planning, formal governance mechanisms and thorough successor training are critical for achieving smooth leadership transitions in Pakistani FOBs. Companies that implement structured governance and clear succession processes experience fewer internal conflicts and greater business continuity. However, socio-cultural factors, such as seniority-based preferences and gender biases, present significant obstacles, often complicating the transition process. Additional challenges include resistance to modernized strategies, and sibling rivalry strongly influence succession outcomes in the Pakistani context and highlight the need for culturally sensitive governance approaches to improve business continuity.
Practical implications
Practical implications for family-owned businesses include early succession planning, structured governance mechanisms and comprehensive training for successors. Establishing family councils can minimize conflicts and align family goals. Addressing cultural biases, such as gender and seniority preferences, encourages merit-based succession, ensuring smoother transitions. These strategies enhance continuity, reduce disruptions and support sustained growth, particularly in culturally influenced contexts like Pakistani family-owned businesses.
Originality/value
By examining succession dynamics within the context of an emerging economy such as Pakistan, this study provides valuable insights into the unique cultural and organizational challenges facing FOBs. The findings enrich the understanding of succession in family enterprises and extend current knowledge on the influence of socio-cultural factors in business continuity.
Family business success has become a focus for researchers over the recent years. Studies have proven that only 30% of family businesses endure beyond an initial generation. This research was aimed at investigating the factors that impact the success of family businesses. Specifically, the research examined the internal dynamics that impact the success of family business using the Activity System paradigm. Also, the study examined the external factors such as business networks and connections on the success of family businesses. The study finally finds out the strategies implemented by family businesses to overcome obstacles and challenges in the course of their succession. The findings indicate that there is a high correlation between internal dynamics and the success of family businesses. Also, the results indicate that family business thrive external aspects including connections and networks. The major obstacles to success of family businesses identified by the study include family wrangles and failure to identify successors in time. The study recommends early identification of successors to avoid family wrangles after the first generation ends. Also, the study recommends that for the family businesses to succeed, they need to have external connections. Incidentally, the study recommends strategic decision-making approaches to avoid missteps.
Knowledge transfer is essential to managing a family firm's succession. Given the importance of knowledge in family firms, this chapter identifies, through an empirical approach, which are the main organizational strategies used for sharing, disseminating, and using the knowledge available as fundamental elements for survival and the development of companies in the phase of generational succession. The authors investigate the phenomenon and verify the evidence in some private health organizations interested in the generational change located in South Italy, given the lack of previous case studies. This chapter deepens the phenomenon and its recognizability by examining with a qualitative analysis of the problems existing in those who are currently living or have experienced this particular moment of business life.
This study focuses on the cognitive abilities of managers and examines the effect of entrepreneurial alertness (EA) of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers on the quality of strategic decision-making and firm performance under uncertain environmental conditions. This study also sheds light on the antecedents of EA that are crucial for SMEs by focusing on the nuances of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) arising from business succession. The results of structural equation modeling based on a questionnaire survey of SMEs in Japan, where the society is aging rapidly and the business succession situation is becoming more serious, show that EA is positively related to the quality of strategic decision-making and firm performance. However, managers’ intrafamilial business succession attributes affect EA negatively and are positively moderated when social capital is formed within families. These findings contribute to the theoretical development of EA by extending the scope of study. Additionally, the findings provide a practical perspective by clarifying the nuances of business succession, which can be problematic for many firms.
Current study examines the intervening role of team creativity for the relationship of four kinds of KM practice with innovation and the moderating effect of proactiveness in IT companies based on a Knowledge-Based View (KBV). Data was collected from 316 employees of IT companies who engage in software development in teams with the help of a simple random sampling method. Results indicate that KM practices have a positive impact on innovation. Also, team creativity plays mediating role in the relation of two KM practices i.e., knowledge sharing and knowledge application with innovation. Whereas proactiveness plays a positive moderating role in the relation of knowledge application and knowledge generation with innovation. Moreover, it plays a negative moderating role in relation of Knowledge sharing with innovation. This research adds to the body of literature by suggesting a framework of knowledge diffusion, knowledge storage, knowledge generation, knowledge application, team creativity, proactiveness, and innovation in a single model. This research also adds to the body of literature by proposing the intervening role of team creativity in the relationships of knowledge diffusion, knowledge storage, knowledge generation, and knowledge application, with innovation. The results of this research help the managers to use the team creativity concept to intervene in relation of knowledge diffusion, knowledge storage, knowledge generation, and knowledge application, with innovation. The results of the current study also give valuable insights to managers into why they can use the proactiveness to moderate the relations of knowledge diffusion, knowledge storage, knowledge generation, and knowledge application, with innovation. Current study adds in the body of literature by proposing the entire manuscript on the basis of two theories i.e., Knowledge-Based View (KBV) builds on and expands the RBV.
The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships among green organizational culture, green innovation, and green performance for achieving environmental sustainability. It is assumed that green organizational culture, green innovation, and green performance are supported by environmental responsible principles, assumptions, shared values, attitudes, behaviors, initiatives, and practices in organizations. The method used is the descriptive, analytic, and reflective based on a theoretical and empirical review of the literature. The analysis concludes that alignment of green organizational culture to green innovation and green technology led to green practices and performance in the organization.
The emergence of the resource-based view (RBV) has changed the understanding of how companies grow and shifted the focus of examination from the firm s external factors to the internal ones, more specifically to the company s resources so that the divergent developmental route of companies could be explained. The fundamental assumption of RBV is that companies have different resources. If these resources are valuable , rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN), they represent a lasting competitive advantage for the company. This study aims to discuss the literature review results to encapsulate the evolution of the resource-based view, its impact on family business research and theories, and its novel contributions to this field. RBV has been incorporated in family business research with the premise that family firms are thought to have resources that differ from those of their non-family counterparts because the family itself is considered a VRIN resource, through which the company can gain a competitive advantage and achieve higher organizational performance. A family business stood the test of time as it is still used even in recent research as a reference point. Familiness has also contributed to the emergence of other concepts such as the socio-emotional wealth.
Purpose-The study empirically explores the influence of reorganization on entrepreneurial intentions and family business generational transfers among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach-Using multi-group analysis and partial least square structural equation models, data from 252 family-owned businesses were analyzed.
Findings-The results reveal that reorganization partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and family business generational transfers among SMEs.
Research limitations/implications-The study used a cross-sectional survey approach and focused on Kampala business district. If required and funding permits, a longitudinal study in this field may be conducted.
Practical implications-Family business owners ought to involve their family members in the management of the business from an early age, including them in the decision-making process, and use social exchange to strike a balance between their personal goals and the objectives of the business. In order to protect the business's goals, the business founder should mentor the next generation through quality family social interactions.
Originality/value-Integrating entrepreneurial intentions and reorganization is likely to improve the survival rate of family business generational transfers among SMEs in Uganda using social exchange theory.
Aile işletmelerinde sürdürülebilirlik sağlamak amacıyla nesiller arasında sağlıklı bir yönetim devri elzemdir; bu süreçte, selef ve halefin beklentileri ile karşılaştıkları zorlukların tespiti büyük önem taşımaktadır. Ancak, ulusal akademik literatürde aile işletmelerinin yönetim devri süreçlerinde, birinciden ikinci nesile ve ikinciden üçüncü nesile geçişlerde, halef ve seleflerin beklenti ve zorluk algılarını belirlemeye yönelik yeterli sayıda çalışma bulunmamaktadır. Ayrıca, nesil grupları arasındaki potansiyel farklılıkların ortaya konulması ve bu farklılıkların karşılaştırmalı bir şekilde incelenmesi konusunda da sınırlı sayıda araştırma mevcuttur. Mevcut çalışmalarda genellikle selef veya halef gibi tek bir aktöre odaklanıldığı görülmektedir. Bu boşluğu doldurmayı amaçlayan bu çalışma, aile işletmelerinde yönetim devri sürecinde, birinciden ikinci nesile ve ikinciden üçüncü nesile geçişlerde selef ve haleflerin beklenti ve zorluk algılarını belirlemeyi ve bu algılar arasındaki nesiller arası farklılıkları karşılaştırmayı hedeflemektedir. Çalışmada, kasti örneklem yöntemi kullanılarak 2021 yılı İSO 500/İSO ikinci 500 listesinde olan veya TAİDER üyesi olan dört aile işletmesi örneklem olarak seçilmiştir. Veri toplama aracı olarak mülakat tekniği tercih edilmiş ve her işletmeden bir halef ve bir selef olmak üzere toplam sekiz kişi ile görüşme yapılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler, yönlendirilmiş içerik analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma bulguları, aile işletmelerinde yönetim devri sürecinde seleflerin ve haleflerin beklentileri ve zorluk algılarının büyük ölçüde literatürle uyumlu olmadığını ortaya koymuştur. Literatür taramasıyla belirlenen 21 beklenti ve zorluğun yalnızca 7’si literatürle uyum gösterirken, 14’ü literatürden farklı sonuçlar ortaya koymuştur. Yine 21 gösterge içerisinde sadece 5 tanesinde nesiller arası bir farklılık tespit edilmiştir. Yapılan analizler, “işletmelerin kurumsallaşma seviyeleri, faaliyetlerin yazılı olan kurallar ve belirli bir plan çerçevesinde gerçekleştirilmesi, selefler ve halefler arasındaki ilişki düzeyi” gibi faktörlerin, selef ve haleflerin beklenti ve zorluk algılarının şekillenmesinde etkili olduğunu göstermiştir.
The article examines diversity and inclusion practices in the workplace in Ecuador, highlighting the benefits and challenges of their implementation. Despite a favorable legal framework, many organizations lack structured policies, limiting the effectiveness of inclusion initiatives. Cultural biases and lack of awareness are significant barriers, while diversity is perceived more as an obligation than a valuable resource. The benefits of a diverse workforce include improved financial performance, greater innovation, job satisfaction and talent retention. To overcome the challenges, ongoing training programs, top management support, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are recommended. The adoption of effective policies and a visible commitment to inclusion can transform organizational culture and enhance both business performance and social development in Ecuador
Purpose
This study explores the influence of organizational structure on relationship formation and tacit knowledge sharing within a family business context.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing a single case study approach, data were collected through interviews and questionnaires from 12 participants at a family-owned advertising and communication firm in Beirut, Lebanon.
Findings
The research highlights the critical role of organizational structure in enhancing organizational effectiveness through knowledge transfer. It underscores how both intraorganizational and interorganizational ties influence knowledge sharing processes and demonstrates the varying impacts of tie strength on tacit knowledge distribution.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by examining the interdependence between organizational structure, tacit knowledge transfer and tie strength in family businesses. By analyzing these elements across internal and external boundaries, the study offers a fresh perspective on network dynamics. The research highlights that traditional definitions of network ties may not fully capture the unique environment of family firms, where structural nuances impact knowledge sharing and performance. Practically, the findings provide actionable insights for managers to design organizational structures that optimize tacit knowledge flow, fostering innovation and competitiveness. This work challenges existing frameworks and offers guidance for improving knowledge management in family businesses, supporting sustainable growth and success.
This research aims to determine the planning and succession process in the Medali Mas ikat weaving family business. The research approach used is qualitative descriptive. The types of data used are primary and secondary data. Data collection techniques are carried out by observation, interviews, documentation. The research results show that the succession process was carried out with careful planning. Children as potential replacements are guided by their parents from childhood to be ready to continue the family business. Apart from that, children are required to go to college to increase their knowledge for managing the family business.
This chapter provides a framework that family business members can use to strategically and entrepreneurially evaluate themselves before they prepare the final strategic plan of the family firm. The tool consists of four phases. The first phase is the Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of the Individuals that are members of the family business. The second phase is the SWOT analysis of the Family's generational groups. Each generation in the family business will work in groups according to their year of birth. The third phase is the SWOT analysis of the Business. The fourth and most important phase is the integration called 3D IFB SWOT Analysis. It is 3D because it is three-dimensional, integrating the Individual, the Family's generations, and the Business.
Drawing on an exhaustive analysis of 112 scholarly articles dedicated to the field of Knowledge Management in Family Businesses (KMFB), this study systematically examines the prevailing research frontiers, investigates the intricate dynamics of knowledge management processes, explores the multifaceted outcomes within family business contexts, and provides an array of theoretical perspectives to underpin the empirical investigations. A pivotal focal point that emerges from this comprehensive investigation is the significance of the succession process, which serves as a pivotal link between knowledge processes and the effectiveness in harnessing innovation, entrepreneurial orientation, sustainability, and internationalization outcomes. Notably, a discernible pattern surfaces from the analysis, with a substantial proportion of the KMFB literature grounded in three prominent theoretical lenses: the knowledge-based view, resource-based view, and dynamic capabilities. These theoretical frameworks provide robust foundations for explicating the underlying mechanisms and dynamics that drive knowledge management and its impact on family business performance. Furthermore, this systematic literature review uncovers a rich landscape of opportunities for future research endeavors. It illuminates potential avenues for novel research designs, innovative investigations into knowledge processes, exploration of diverse outcomes, and the application of alternative theoretical perspectives within KMFB research. These prospects hold immense promise in advancing scholarly knowledge, refining existing theories, and providing fresh insights into the intricate interplay between knowledge management and family business performance.
Family Social Capital as a Driver to Leverage Challenged Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Abstract Purpose: Unveiling the key role of family social capital as a driver for transgenerational entrepreneurship in the specific contexts of challenged successor-driven entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a multi-case study methodology. Guided by three theoretical propositions, three transgenerational entrepreneurship case studies are analysed. Drawing on 10 in-depth interviews with at least three different informants from each intra-family succession case study, evidence about this particularly complex phenomenon was obtained. Findings: The paper highlights the effect of family social capital as the key familiness driver to leverage challenged successor-driven entrepreneurship. It underscores the systemic and dynamic network of multiple exchanges required to construct successor's own pool of knowledge resources and to support familiness and thus the competitive advantage of the family firm. Originality: Focusing on a specific intra-family succession context where successor-driven entrepreneurial initiatives face stakeholder opposition, the paper highlights the specific role played by family social capital in the successor knowledge construction in specific contexts of challenged intra-family succession. Practical implications: Different scenarios are illustrated, and specific lessons are provided for successors and families that face transgenerational entrepreneurship opposition in intrafamily succession, regarding the restoration of damaged family social capital and involving non-family stakeholders in the successor-driven entrepreneurship. In these cases, opposition to successor-driven entrepreneurship may help to develop successor's leadership abilities.
Strategy has been defined as “the match an ovganization makes between its internal resources and skills … and the opportunities and risks created by its external environment.” 1 During the 1980s, the principal developments in strategy analysis focussed upon the link between strategy and the external environment. Prominent examples of this focus are Michael Porter's analysis of industry structure and competitive positioning and the empirical studies undertaken by the PIMS project. 2 By contrast, the link between strategy and the firm's resources and skills has suffered comparative neglect. Most research into the strategic implications of the firm's internal environment has been concerned with issues of strategy implementation and analysis of the organizational processes through which strategies emerge. 3
Constructs an analytical framework for a resource-based approach to strategy formulation. There are five stages in this framework: analyze resources, appraise capabilities, analyze competitive advantage, select strategy, and identify resource gaps. The concepts of this framework are illustrated by reference to existing U.S. firms such as IBM, Xerox, Harley-Davidson, and 3M. This framework uses resources and capabilities as the foundation for a firm's long-term strategy because they provide direction for firm strategy and serve as the primary source of firm profit. Resources are defined as the inputs into the production process and include items of capital equipment and skills of individual employees. Capabilities are defined as the capacity for a team of resources to perform some task or activity. When analyzing the competitive advantage of a firm, durability, transparency, transferability, and replicability are considered important factors. To be successful, firms must develop strategies which utilize their unique characteristics. (SRD)
Mark Fox is a doctrol student in the department of Managment, Univeristy of Canterbury, christchurch. New Zeland. V. Nilkant and R.T Hamilton are senior lecture and professor respectively in the same department. this paper is directed at those involved with family-owned business, families and busines which will inevitably face the stress of an inter generational transfer. The research lietrature is brought together to reveal the system of relationship through which such sucession must be mananged. suggestions fro improved managmement are offered and the paper concludes with a suggestion for the design of future research.
We build on an emerging strategy literature that views the firm as a bundle of resources and capabilities, and examine conditions that contribute to the realization of sustainable economic rents. Because of (1) resource-market imperfections and (2) discretionary managerial decisions about resource development and deployment, we expect firms to differ (in and out of equilibrium) in the resources and capabilities they control. This asymmetry in turn can be a source of sustainable economic rent. The paper focuses on the linkages between the industry analysis framework, the resource-based view of the firm, behavioral decision biases and organizational implementation issues. It connects the concept of Strategic Industry Factors at the market level with the notion of Strategic Assets at the firm level. Organizational rent is shown to stem from imperfect and discretionary decisions to develop and deploy selected resources and capabilities, made by boundedly rational managers facing high uncertainty, complexity, and intrafirm conflict.
The explosion of interest in knowledge and its management reflects the trend towards ‘knowledge work’ and the Information Age, and recognition of knowledge as the principal source of economic rent. The papers in this Special Issue represent an attempt by strategy scholars (and some outside our traditional field) to come to terms with the implications of knowledge for the theory of the firm and its management. They are the product of a convergence of several streams of research which have addressed management implications of knowledge, including the management of technology, the economics of innovation and information, resource-based theory, and organizational learning. At the theoretical level, knowledge-centered approaches of Penrose, Arrow, Hayek and others have been enriched by contributions from evolutionary economists (notably Nelson and Winter) and epistemologists (notably M. Polanyi). At the empirical level, research into innovation and its diffusion originated by Mansfield, Griliches and others has been extended through studies which investigate tacit as well as explicit knowledge, and explore knowledge transfer within as well as across firms.
Knowledge is too problematic a concept to make the task of building a dynamic knowledge-based theory of the firm easy. We must also distinguish the theory from the resource-based and evolutionary views. The paper begins with a multitype epistemology which admits both the pre- and subconscious modes of human knowing and, reframing the concept of the cognizing individual, the collective knowledge of social groups. While both Nelson and Winter, and Nonaka and Takeuchi, successfully sketch theories of the dynamic interactions of these types of organizational knowledge, neither indicates how they are to be contained. Callon and Latour suggest knowledge itself is dynamic and contained within actor networks, so moving us from knowledge as a resource toward knowledge as a process. To simplify this approach, we revisit sociotechnical systems theory, adopt three heuristics from the social constructionist literature, and make a distinction between the systemic and component attributes of the actor network. The result is a very different mode of theorizing, less an objective statement about the nature of firms ‘out there’ than a tool to help managers discover their place in the firm as a dynamic knowledge-based activity system.
The complexity of skills and processes needed in the development of today's products and services requires that managers attend to the role of tacit knowledge during innovation. Knowledge held in people's bodies and heads, our unarticulated knowledge, is the very basis of creativity and is not easily captured nor codified. The process of innovation is both an exploration and synthesis. This article examines ways in which managers can begin to deal with tacit knowledge; how to create an environment for a divergent process that includes a wide and healthy proliferation of ideas and a successful convergent process in which options are narrowed and a solution is decided upon and implemented.
Strategic management has been increasingly characterized by an emphasis on core competences. Firms are advised to divest unrelated businesses and return to core business. Moreover, competitive advantage is now increasingly seen as a matter of efficiently deploying scarce knowledge resources to product markets. Much of this change in emphasis has occurred because of the emergence of a unified and rigorous approach to strategy, often called the resource-based approach. This Reader brings together extracts from the seminal articles that created this dominant perspective in strategic management. It includes the pioneering work of Selznick, Penrose, and Chandler and more recent writing by Wernerfelt, Barney, Teece, and Prahalad and Hamel.
How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.
Understanding sources of sustained competitive advantage has become a major area of research in strategic management. Building on the assumptions that strategic resources are heterogeneously distributed across firms and that these differences are stable over time, this article examines the link between firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Four empirical indicators of the potential of firm resources to generate sustained competitive advantage-value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability are discussed. The model is applied by analyzing the potential of several firm resources for generating sustained competitive advantages. The article concludes by examining implications of this firm resource model of sustained competitive advantage for other business disciplines.
'I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell', writes Michael Polanyi, whose work paved the way for the likes of Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper. "The Tacit Dimension", originally published in 1967, argues that such tacit knowledge - tradition, inherited practices, implied values, and prejudgments - is a crucial part of scientific knowledge. Back in print for a new generation of students and scholars, this volume challenges the assumption that skepticism, rather than established belief, lies at the heart of scientific discovery.
How do CEOs of small businesses help their successors develop the strategic knowledge and insight needed to run the company? This study compared the ratings of 236 family-firm CEOs with those of 121 nonfamily-firm CEOs regarding the relative importance of different modes of successor preparation. The results show significant differences between the family and non-family sub-samples in 15 of the 19 forms of preparation studied. In general, CEOs of non-family firms tend to favor successor preparations that are "outsourced" rather than internalized within the company. CEOs of family firms take a more direct approach to preparing successors - one that places a premium on developing personal relationships between CEO and successor, and between the successor and the stakeholders of the business.
This paper presents guidelines for integrating daughters into family business management. Based upon the results of an empirical study of daughters working with their founder/fathers in 18 family-owned firms, this paper indicates that the daughter represents an often untapped resource within the family firm and may be particularly suited for working in collaboration with the father/founder to manage the family firm. Key aspects of the daughter's particular strengths in working with the father to manage the family firm are stressed, and steps for integrating the daughter into family firm management are proposed.
The increasing liberalization of markets coupled with the creation of new markets for intermediate products is stripping firm-level competitive advantage back to its fundamental core: difficult to create and difficult to imitate intangible assets. This article explores these developments and elucidates implications for the management of intellectual capital inside firms.
The purpose of this study is to identify groups of firms with similar generic knowledge strategies, determine how these strategies change over time, and compare profit margins of the groups. Knowledge strategies of 21 U.S. pharmaceutical firms are analyzed from 1977 to 1991. Cluster analysis is used to group firms over different time periods based on: (a) balance between internal and external learning, (b) preference for radical or incremental learning, (c) learning speed, and (d) breadth of knowledge base. Our findings indicate that there are four generic knowledge strategy groups: ‘Explorers’, ‘Exploiters’, ‘Loners’, and ‘Innovators’. Most firms remain in the same knowledge group over time. The firms in the ‘Innovator’ and ‘Explorer’ groups tend to be more profitable than the firms in the ‘Exploiter’ and ‘Loner’ groups.
Countering claims that cyberspace will bring the end of organizations in general and of the firm in particular, this article points to the role organizations play in fostering the production and synergistic development of knowledge. Formal organizations help turn the partial, situated insights of individuals and communities into robust, organizational knowledge. To organize knowledge in this way requires acknowledging the boundaries inevitably erected within organizations through the division of labor and the division of knowledge. Infrastructure for organizing knowledge must overcome these boundaries. Assuming that knowledge is a frictionless commodity possessed by individuals makes communications technologies and social organization curious antagonists. This article argues instead for compatible organizational and technological architectures that respond to and enhance the social production of knowledge.
This study models the influence of family relationships on succession variables, using a sample of 130 participants from 109 family businesses. Results suggest that the effects of family adaptability and family cohesion on succession planning and successor training are determined by the family'S commitment to the business and the quality of the owner-manager and successor relationship. The study finds that the influence of family relationships on administrative behavior in family businesses is not always direct, as was previously assumed, but is mediated by various factors.
Ikujiro Nonaka e Hirotaka Takeuchi establecen una vinculación del desempeño de las empresas japonesas con su capacidad para crear conocimiento y emplearlo en la producción de productos y tecnologías exitosas en el mercado. Los autores explican que hay dos tipos de conocimiento: el explícito, contenido en manuales y procedimientos, y el tácito, aprendido mediante la experiencia y comunicado, de manera indirecta, en forma de metáforas y analogías. Mientras los administradores estadounidenses se concentran en el conocimiento explícito, los japoneses lo hacen en el tácito y la clave de su éxito estriba en que han aprendido a convertir el conocimiento tácito en explícito. Finalmente, muestran que el mejor estilo administrativo para crear conocimiento es el que ellos denominan centro-arriba-abajo, en el que los gerentes de niveles intermedios son un puente entre los ideales de la alta dirección y la realidad caótica de los niveles inferiores.
This book discusses the development of a theory on the growth of the firm. It is shown that the resources with which a particular firm is accustomed to working will shape the productive services its management is capable of rendering. The experience of management will affect the productive services that all its other resources are capable of rendering. As management tries to make the best use of the resources available, a ‘dynamic’ interacting process occurs which encourages growth but limits the rate of growth.
The organizational problem firms face is the utilization of knowledge which is not, and cannot be, known by a single agent. Even more importantly, no single agent can fully specify in advance what kind of practical knowledge is going to be relevant, when and where. Firms, therefore, are distributed knowledge systems in a strong sense: they are decentered systems, lacking an overseeing ‘mind’. The knowledge they need to draw upon is inherently indeterminate and continually emerging; it is not self-contained. Individuals' stock of knowledge consists of (a) role-related normative expectations; (b) dispositions, which have been formed in the course of past socializations; and (c) local knowledge of particular circumstances of time and place. A firm has greater-or-lesser control over normative expectations, but very limited control over the other two. At any point in time, a firm's knowledge is the indeterminate outcome of individuals attempting to manage the inevitable tensions between normative expectations, dispositions, and local contexts.
The Resource-Based View (RBV) of competitive advantage provides a theoretical framework from the field of strategic management for assessing the competitive advantages of family firms. The RBV isolates idiosyncratic resources that are complex, intangible, and dynamic within a particular firm. The bundle of resources that are distinctive to a firm as a result of family involvement are identified as the “familiness” of the firm. This approach provides a research and practice method for assessing the specific behavioral and social phenomena within a firm that provide an advantage. Using a familiness model for assessing competitive advantage overcomes many of the problems associated with the generic claim that family companies have an advantage over nonfamily companies. It also provides a unified systems perspective of family firm performance.
The cross-disciplinary nature of family business studies suggests the opportunity to consider theories and applications from a variety of disciplines in order to examine how they might be applied to family business. This article is an exploratory examination of how the Center for Creative Leadership's research in the field of leadership might add to the knowledge and hypotheses regarding leadership in family businesses.
The goal is to outline strategies for developing leadership that practitioners might find useful in their work with families around succession opportunities. Additionally, the hope is to spark discussion and thinking around the possible application of a leadership development model to the successor generation in family businesses.
The succession processes in family business are well chronicled in the business literature. Most of the research focuses on the process of transferring power within the business-family. What has not been as closely examined is the after-succession environment that exists when the management and leadership of the family business are passed on to the next generation. This article addresses that organizational climate and the potential for additional problems in the business-family if post-succession issues are not identified and addressed and suggests some steps that will be helpful in producing complete succession success.
Little research has been conducted on family business strategy, even though a significant portion of the nation's largest companies are family controlled. This article provides a framework for addressing strategy and proposes topics for research on family business strategy. Topics include mission, industry and situation analyses, global strategy, and strategy implementation.
This paper reviews the research to date on succession in the field of family business management. Five streams of research are highlighted: (1) succession as a process, (2) the role of the founder, (3) the perspective of the next generation, (4) multiple levels of analysis, and (5) characteristics of effective successions. Gaps in the literature and future research directions are also presented.
The authors examine the relationship between the life cycles of fathers and sons who work together, concluding that the quality of the work relationship varies as a function of their respective life stages. The intersection of their individual developmental paths can have positive or negative effects on the nature of the work relationship, on the resolution of such problem issues as succession, and on productivity.
The lack of succession planning has been identified as one of the most important reasons why many first-generation family firms do not survive their founders. This paper explores some of the factors that interfere with succession planning and suggests ways in which these barriers can be constructively managed.
The study of Business Best Practice (BBP) currently enjoys broad popularity amongst IT-based consultancies as well as the academic community. Unfortunately, despite the growth of practice, BBP lacks sound theoretical foundations. This paper addresses the shortcomings of current best practice benchmarking literature and offers a first step towards a more solid foundation for the study of BBP.We begin by surveying current normative trends in benchmarking and BBP literature. We continue by examining a group of BBP cases and show how these prescriptions can become quite problematic and complex when transferring knowledge across organisations, industries, institutional environments, and cultures. In illustrating these challenges, we form a context for a critical evaluation of BBP's underlying assumptions. Explicitly addressing these assumptions opens an avenue for analysing the epistemological challenges in identifying and defining `best practice'. Concluding that apart from the identification of `best practice', the mechanisms of best practice knowledge acquisition and co-ordination are of interest, we turn to contemporary economic `theories of the firm', showing where these concepts do — and do not — provide guidance and foundations for the study of the accumulation and management of `best practice' knowledge. Based upon the epistemological challenges, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of existing theory, we synthesise our argument by formulating premises and practical guidelines for the practice of BBP transfer.
This paper elucidates the underlying economics of the resource-based view of competitive advantage and integrates existing perspectives into a parsimonious model of resources and firm performance. The essence of this model is that four conditions underlie sustained competitive advantage, all of which must be met. These include superior resources (heterogeneity within an industry), ex post limits to competition, imperfect resource mobility, and ex ante limits to competition. In the concluding section, applications of the model for both single business strategy and corporate strategy are discussed.
In common with those of other regions, the major wastes of the European Community (EC) that may be regarded as potential sources of lignocellulose are animal manures, crop and forestry residues, domestic and industrial solid wastes and waste paper. The availability reflects the agricultural policy under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as well as the shortfall in timber production within the EC. Significant regional differences exist due to variations in climate and both agricultural and industrial practices. Of particular importance in future will be policy in respect of land use and/or steps taken to reduce agricultural surpluses.
Although many streams of management research address leadership, succession, and executive development issues, significant gaps in the literature remain. In particular, few studies have systematically explored the systems by which the future leaders (successors) of family firms are developed. This research presents a descriptive study in which the successor development approaches of small to medium-sized family and nonfamily firms are compared. The findings indicate that (1) family firms favor more personal, relationship-centered approaches to successor development; (2) nonfamily firms prefer formalized, task-oriented development approaches; and (3) company size has no real effect on successor development.
As a field of study, family-owned business has lacked a coherent comprehensive framework. Currently the field is based largely on the succession literature, where the number of conceptual and empirical studies has doubled in the past five years. By using a conceptual and research-based typology for the field, the conceptual and empirical studies can be evaluated. Based upon the typology, potential studies and questions have been suggested for future research.
This article introduces the Japanese concept of "Ba" to organizational theory. Ba (equivalent to "place" in English) is a shared space for emerging relationships. It can be a physical, virtual, or mental space. Knowledge, in contrast to information, cannot be separated from the context—it is embedded in ba. To support the process of knowledge creation, a foundation in ba is required. This article develops and explains four specific platforms and their relationships to knowledge creation. Each of the knowledge conversion modes is promoted by a specific ba. A self-transcending process of knowledge creation can be supported by providing ba on different organizational levels. This article presents case studies of three companies that employ ba on the team, division, and corporate level to enhance knowledge creation.
This article reviews the literature on family business from a strategic management perspective. In general, this literature is dominated by descriptive articles that typically focus on family relationships. However, the literature does not usually address how these relationships affect the performance of a family business. Taking a strategic management perspective, we outline a new set of objectives for family-business research. We also identify some of the key issues and gaps that should be explored in future studies if research is to contribute to improving the management practices and performance of family firms.
This article examines and defines the main concepts in knowledge management. Since our economy has evolved over the last couple of years into a knowledge-based economy, knowledge has become one of the main assets of companies. Knowledge can be defined as: information; the capability to interpret data and information through a process of giving meaning to these data and information; and an attitude aimed at wanting to do so. In making these factors productive knowledge management can be defined as achieving organisational goals through the strategy-driven motivation and facilitation of (knowledge) workers to develop, enhance and use their capability to interpret data and information (by using available sources of information, experience, skills, culture, character, etc.) through a process of giving meaning to these data and information. Consultants and managers should ask themselves strategic, organisational and instrumental questions regarding knowledge management to stay competitive in a highly dynamic and changing world.
The ability to transfer best practices intemally is critical to a firm's ability to build competitive advantage through the appropriation of rents from scarce internal knowledge. Just as a firm's distinctive competencies might be difficult for other firms to imitate, its best practices could be difficult to imitate internally. Yet, little systematic attention has been paid to such intemal stickiness. The author analyzes intemal stickiness of knowledge transfer and tests the resulting model using canonical correlation analysis of a data set consisting of 271 observations of 122 best-practice transfers in eight companies. Contrary to conventional wisdom that blames primarily motivational factors, the study findings show the major barriers to internal knowledge transfer to be knowledge-related factors such as the recipient's lack of absorptive capacity, causal ambiguity, and an arduous relationship between the source and the recipient. The identification and transfer of best practices is emerging as one of the most important and widespread practical management issues of the latter half of the 1990s. Armed with meaningful, detailed performance data, firms that use fact- based management methods such as TQM, bench- marking, and process reengineering can regularly compare the perfonnance of their units along operational dimensions. Sparse but unequivocal evidence suggests that such comparisons often reveal surprising perfonnance differences between units, indicating a need to improve knowledge utilization within the firm (e.g., Chew, Bresnahan, and Clark, 1990).' Because intemal transfers typi-
No theory or model of organizational learning has widespread acceptance. This paper clarifies the distinction between organizational learning and organizational adaptation and shows that change does not necessarily imply learning. There are different levels of learning, each having a different impact on the strategic management of the firm.
Chief executive succession presents special challenges for family businesses. This article proposes a typology of retirement styles and recommends strategies for planning and managing the succession process.
In a family firm, the strands of the family system are so tightly interwoven with those of the business system that they cannot be disentangled without seriously disrupting one or both systems.