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Same same but different: regional coherence between institutions and policies in family firm succession
Abstract
Family firms represent the backbone of regional economies in Europe. Yet, due to demographic and societal changes, family firm succession increasingly poses a challenge to both firm continuity and regional stability, which is why policymakers look for appropriate ways to support family firms in their succession processes. In pursuit of policies that fit local institutional conditions, we explore the fact that two structurally similar European regions facing the same succession problem have developed different policies to address it. Using the analytical framework of institutional logics and drawing on 67 interviews with family firms and succession experts in the Spanish Basque Country and the German region of Baden-Württemberg, we find that the different policies are coherent with each region’s unique constellation of the institutional logics of business, family, and community and thus make up distinct regional policy regimes. The paper offers a framework applicable to other regions for making underlying normative behavioural guidelines visible, and for more precisely assessing the relationship between institutions and policies. It contributes to a better understanding of the regional specificity of institutions as a base upon which place-sensitive policies can be developed, or fundamental attempts be made to re-shape institutions by political measures.
... To interlink institutional logics, agents employ wider imaginaries that include forward-looking visions and backward-looking narratives (Benner, 2020a(Benner, , 2022aJasanoff and Kim, 2009;Sotarauta, 2018;Van Lente, 2021) that justify the carrying over of legitimacy. The article goes beyond existing research that addresses the combination of multiple institutional logics on the organizational level (e.g., Besharov and Smith, 2014;Lenz and Glückler, 2021;Pache and Santos, 2013;Tracey et al., 2011) and focuses on how agents combine institutional logics to legitimize new paths by drawing on visions. By doing so, the article proposes an attempt of "deep contextualization" of spatial evolutionary processes (Martin and Sunley, 2015). ...
... Different institutional logics are not isolated but interact. For example, Lenz and Glückler (2021) describe how the community logic of regional economies moderates the role of business and family logics in firm succession. Institutional logics are not mutually exclusive but can overlap, compete, complement each other, and be blended by agents (Baekkelund, 2022;Fuenfschilling and Truffer, 2016;Glynn and Lounsbury, 2005;Rao et al., 2003;Thornton and Ocasio, 2008). ...
... While the combination of multiple institutional logics is a well-known phenomenon (e.g., Baekkelund, 2022;Besharov and Smith, 2014;Lenz and Glückler, 2021;Pache and Santos, 2013;Tracey et al., 2011), interlinking addresses a specific case that includes the role of visions as symbolic constructions strategically employed by agents to legitimize new paths on the local and regional level (Benner, 2022a;Sotarauta, 2018;Steen, 2016). In contrast to blending (Glynn and Lounsbury, 2005) and folding (Glückler and Eckhardt, 2022), interlinking is not based on competition between institutional logics but on their complementarities. ...
The legitimation of new regional industrial paths has become a crucial issue in path development since it touches the institutional foundations of spatial evolution and fits the recent interest in agency. Neo-institutional sociology offers a wealth of insights for how agents build legitimacy. In particular, the institutional logics perspective suggests multiple material and symbolic sources of legitimacy. Seeking a deeper contextualization of paths into their socio-institutional environment, this article argues that new paths are legitimized by agents interlinking institutional logics through symbolic constructions such as visions. Empirical examples from two tourism destinations in Israel illustrate this mechanism.
... Hence, for a precise understanding of what institutions are, distinguishing between formal institutions, informal institutions, and actual practices (Jones & Murphy, 2010) and clarifying their relationships is necessary. For the purposes of this paper, I adopt a working definition of institutions that reverts to North's 'rules of the game' (North, 1990, p. 3) that can be either formal/explicit or informal/tacit (Hodgson, 2006) but have to be accepted by agents as social guidelines for appropriate and legitimate behaviour (Bathelt & Glückler, 2014;Lenz & Glückler, 2021;Oliver, 1992;Scott, 2014;Streeck & Thelen, 2005) in the sense of being 'templates for action' (Lawrence et al., 2009, p. 7), even if they are not currently practiced. Following North's (1990, p. 4) characterization of organizations as 'players' and consistently with Bathelt and Glückler (2014), organizations are not covered by this working definition of institutions (see also Glückler & Lenz, 2016;Zukauskaite et al., 2017). 1 This understanding follows Hodgson (2006) in that institutions are not identical with practices but are not 'pure' social structure detached from practice either; rather, institutions share characteristics of both. ...
... Patterns of institutional change are contingent on the context at hand (Bathelt & Glückler, 2003, 2014. For example, incremental institutional change plays a prominent role in a system that Glückler et al. (2020) describe as the 'hourglass model' marked by strong intra-firm relations, weak inter-firm relations, and strong regionallevel networks, while a context marked by firm succession as in the Basque Country and Baden-Württemberg (Lenz & Glückler, 2021) could provide a peculiar opportunity for radical institutional change. ...
... Oliver (1992) analyses processes of deinstitutionalization that lead either to an incremental erosion or to a more radical rejection of institutions (see also Jepperson, 1991;Scott, 2014). For example, leadership discontinuity in firm succession (Lenz & Glückler, 2021) can provide a context for deinstitutionalization (Oliver, 1992) that may often be radical but can also take an incremental form. ...
Evolutionary economic geography has sought to understand the development of regional industrial pathways but tended to neglect both the multiscalarity of economic development and the role of institutional change. The concept of coevolution seeks to bridge this gap but is still too vague for empirical application. Understanding the interactions between path development and institutional change in regional economies and on higher spatial scales requires retheorizing coevolution along the dimensions of institutional–industrial coevolution, path multiplicity and multiscalarity. The article proposes such a retheorized concept of coevolution by integrating concepts of path development, institutions, institutional change, institutional entrepreneurship, institutional work and nestedness.
... The government's role here relates to policy priority or the lack thereof. That is, the setting and governing of building and facilitating the interpretation of CE regulations into institutions and industry practices (Bolger and Doyon 2019;Lenz and Glückler 2020). Government organizations are also important clients that can lead the way in implementing CE in the building industry. ...
... 3 Thus, the two cases highlight the link between prior sustainability policies, public discourse development, and the framing of CE issues as 'sayings'. Relating to the theoretical framework, these findings highlight that local policies as formal institutions (see Figure 1 in section 2.1) affect the forming of practices as 'sayings' at a regional level (Lenz and Glückler 2020). The building industry in the two case regions is influenced by EU regulations regarding CE, and the difference in 'sayings' is linked to local policy development. ...
... The building industry in the two case regions is influenced by EU regulations regarding CE, and the difference in 'sayings' is linked to local policy development. Understanding institutions' regional specificity for place sensitive policies is a fundamental link between CE policies and practices (Lenz and Glückler 2020). ...
As one of the biggest consumers of natural resources, the building industry is a central target for EU and national Circular Economy (CE) policies. This qualitative case study uses a practice theory approach to investigate how firms in the building industry in Luxembourg and Gothenburg, Sweden, understand CE and develop circular practices. The main findings indicate that the industry is in the early stages of developing CE practices. Most companies are in an orientation process and define the meaning and content of the Circular Economy. The definition and scope of what is included differ in the two case regions and show a clear link to prior policies. We do not find industry-wide practices in firm activities. We find promising developments in individual firms or supply chains, including purchasing for lower waste, CE materials and design using non-virgin materials and using digital tools to increase transparency. The main hindrances, according to interviewees, are the lack of cooperation between actors and guidance from policymakers. They further claim that fragmentation and lack of transparency are barriers to circular practices in the industry.
... Two-thirds of these firms in Germany are family-owned firms (Venohr & Meyer 2007) -a firm type linked to long-term orientation and distinct forms of spatial familiness (Basco & Suwala 2020). Family-owned firms in general are crucial for the prosperity and strength of local and regional economies, among other factors, due to significant contributions to regional employment, the tax base, and vocational training (Baù et al. 2019, Lenz & Glückler 2021. Nevertheless, RIS integration of family-owned firms has rarely been examined -in defiance of the firm type's capacity to alter regional institutions (Basco 2015). ...
... Secondly, additional research on the relationship of digitalization-related behavior and regional integration of these firms can be insightful in exploring this connection. Thirdly, further studies on the effect of family business successions as well as mergers and acquisitions on regional integration of Hidden Champions may prove relevant in establishing the influence of firm-internal factors such as ownership structure (Lenz & Glückler 2021). Fourthly, while this paper has focused on the integration of this firm type in rural RIS and their subsystems, additional insights on relations between these firms and civil society and on various regional contributions of Hidden Champions and their importance for their home region, such as economic and intangible effects, may enrich the understanding of the relevance of this firm type for rural areas. ...
This article studies the integration of Hidden Champions – little-known highly innovative global market leaders – in rural regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany. These firms are analyzed in relation to their integration into a RIS framework, which differentiates two subsystems: knowledge generation and diffusion, and knowledge application and exploitation. The relevance of firm-internal and firm-external regional influencing factors on rural RIS integration is examined. The article proposes that Hidden Champions are weakly integrated in RIS due to their international sales focus and high technological specialization. To test this premise, 57 expert interviews with Hidden Champions and regional actors were conducted. It was found that key influences for RIS integration of this firm type are ownership structure, firm size, organizational status, location economies, and urbanization economies. Family businesses are on average more integrated than other firm types, but vary significantly in their integration.
... Furthermore, little attention has been paid to qualitative case studies that analyze the role of informal institutions within economic and regional development processes (Gertler, 2018;Rodríguez-Pose, 2020). Furthermore, dynamic institutional changes, their perceptions, and the reactions of individual actors are largely neglected (Lenz & Glückler, 2020). Therefore, while significant work in the international business literature focuses on the understanding of risks and how firms try to mitigate them, the link to institution-related risks remains limited (Zhu & Sardana, 2020). ...
... Institutions are, therefore, crucial in explaining the decision-making processes of firms as well as their strategic behavior (cf. Bosker & Garretsen, 2009;Lenz & Glückler, 2020;Li et al., 2014;Pike et al., 2014). For example, the results of a study by Busse and Hefeker (2007) indicate that foreign investors are sensitive to changes in the stability and reliability of government styles. ...
Dynamic institutional changes, and their impact at the actor level, are largely neglected in research on the role of institutional change in foreign direct investment (FDI). To fill this research gap, we analyze to what extent formal and informal institutional factors influence the investment decisions and strategies of managers. Internationally, since the protests in 2013 against the increasingly authoritarian Turkish government, there has been a growing perception of increasing uncertainty for FDI. This uncertainty poses investment risks for foreign firms based on a series of political developments and regional conflicts such as civil protests, an attempted military coup, and the war in Iraq and Syria. From an institutional perspective, we analyze how the perception of risk, based on formal institutional dynamics, influences the strategies of German firms operating in Turkey. We aim to find out how managers of these firms perceive and cope with these institutional risks. The paper is based on a quantitative telephone survey (n = 147), and 30 qualitative interviews with managers and experts in Turkey. We find that embedded German firms with long-term investment relationships in Turkey, rely on both formal and informal institutions to respond to risks arising from shocks at a formal institutional level.
... The organization should focus on healthier and more transparent communication while implementing the succession plan. It will reduce the interpersonal resistance between individuals and positively affect organizational resistance (Perrenoud & Sullivan, 2017;Lenz & Glückler, 2021). The presence of quality of interpersonal relationships among the prominent persons in the succession process will positively impact the business environment. ...
Australia’s demographics are going through structural and cultural impediments, and massive changes are starting to occur in the following five years. The baby boomers’ generation is in the process of retiring. The major task which consumes most of the time was to extract knowledge from the baby boomers. Moreover, it involves identifying and evaluating knowledge from critical employees and will leave the establishment sooner. Succession planning mostly involves employees, which are about to depart the organization in the short term, and new skilled employees will engage in the function. Effective succession planning requires affirmative responses regarding the department’s organizational culture, functionality, goals and objectives, and relationship with the stakeholders and vision. To deliver high-quality succession planning, it is indispensable to deliver a robust Successor-Incumbent relationship, mutual reliance, open and sincere communication. Therefore, this paper emphasizes the strategic plan for succession planning and explains how critical it is to have clear, trustable, and authentic communication between the successor and the Incumbent.
... It is difficult to distinctly delimit the territory of the Basque cultural border region because the people may be historically rooted in two administrative provinces in Spain and three historic provinces in France. According to the literature, the level of the Basque regional cultural identity and the degree of sharing of a common language -Euskaravaries in each province; however, they all share a high ethnic tendency, regional identity and cultural similarity (García-Álvarez and Trillo-Santamaría 2013; Lenz and Glückler 2021). ...
Cultural proximities are significant aspects that can foster or hinder integration in border regions; however, culture is underrepresented in border studies. Such cultural proximities are affected by cultural characteristics and different types of socio-cultural regional constructs, such as gesellschaft (civic societies) and gemeinschaft (ethnic communities). These characteristics influence both the level of the cultural border networks and the degree of cultural territorial clustering. This study is concerned with answering these questions: How can culture––from the territorial and network perspectives––be measured in two different EU cross-border contexts? How does ethnicity and different socio-cultural constructs in cross-border regions influence spatio-cultural networks and clusters? What different cross-border cultural network typologies exist? What different cultural city types can be differentiated? The first case is the Basque region which tends to symbolise a gemeinschaft ethnic region and the second is the Upper Rhine gesellschaft region. The study is based on quantitative and qualitative datasets. It is argued that the existence of ethnic attributes in European cross-border regions supports internal cultural integration across the border, whereas the cultural networks in non-ethnic regions reach out relatively more to other parts of the EU, implying external integration capabilities.
... Logics enable actors to make sense of their ambiguous world by prescribing and proscribing actions. Research in economic geography has looked, for instance, at the intersection of different logics-family, business, community logics-to account for interregional variations in family firm behavior and to devise appropriate place-based policies (Lenz and Glückler, 2020). The relation between logic and action is reciprocal and mutually reinforcing: action re-enacts institutional logics and thus makes them durable (Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005). ...
We take an institutional perspective to examine how innovation thrives under conditions of resistance. Specifically, we conceive illicit innovation as a process of successive institutionalization of a new practice in the face of contrary law. In the German federal state of Bavaria, the global movement of craft-beer brewing collides with a regional jurisdiction that prohibits precisely these brewing practices and instead protects the traditional institution of purity-brewing (Reinheitsgebot). Grounded on an embedded qualitative case study of brewers and industry representatives, we build a theory of institutional folding of new norms and practices over established ones. This way, creative brewers have succeeded in legitimizing new practices of naturalness-brewing (Natürlichkeitsgebot). Whereas the legal resistance has stimulated brewers to create an original counter-institution, the illicit innovation has also begun to change the institutional context of the beer industry in Bavaria.
... But it is not geographical concentration alone that might explain regional innovation processes. Rather, its conceptual connection with social spaces manifested in institutions (Lenz & Glückler, 2020), networks and communities might complete the argument of regional innovation. According to the relational approach to economic geography, the focus on micro-level interactions of individuals as principal agents of knowledge creation highlights the connection of social and physical spaces (Bathelt & Glückler, 2018). ...
This paper proposes a holistic approach for investigating high innovation performance in SMEs by comparing different German regions. Invoking insights from the innovation mode concept and existing literature on regional innovation, we apply a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 47 interviews with SMEs to show that high innovativeness is based on a bundle of conditions summarized as mechanisms of learning-by-doing, learning-by-using, learning-by-interacting, and learning-by-science. The results indicate that only parts of the DUI mode, in combination with the STI mode, can explain high innovativeness. This has implications for managers as well as for innovation policy, highlighting that there is no universal “best way” to become highly innovative.
... Previous research has showed that Basque family entrepreneurs actively participate in these cultural activities together with their local community (Lenz and Glückler, 2020). Thus, the relational infrastructure of traditional Basque family firms can be described similarly to what Glückler et al. (2020) found for the region of Heilbronn-Franconia: little connection between firms in terms of collaboration, but a cohesive non-business network within the local community, and strong intra-firm relations due to pronounced family logics as guiding principles. ...
This book explores the relationship between families, firms, and regions and the extent to which these relationships contribute to regional economic and social development.
... Previous research has showed that Basque family entrepreneurs actively participate in these cultural activities together with their local community (Lenz and Glückler, 2020). Thus, the relational infrastructure of traditional Basque family firms can be described similarly to what Glückler et al. (2020) found for the region of Heilbronn-Franconia: little connection between firms in terms of collaboration, but a cohesive non-business network within the local community, and strong intra-firm relations due to pronounced family logics as guiding principles. ...
... Previous research has showed that Basque family entrepreneurs actively participate in these cultural activities together with their local community (Lenz and Glückler, 2020). Thus, the relational infrastructure of traditional Basque family frms can be described similarly to what Glückler et al. (2020) found for the region of Heilbronn-Franconia: little connection between frms in terms of collaboration, but a cohesive non-business network within the local community, and strong intra-frm relations due to pronounced family logics as guiding principles. ...
Family firms have multiple nodes that connect them with the regions in which they are located, for example providing jobs and professional training, paying taxes, and engaging in regional philanthropy. The regional anchoring of family firms thus plays an important role in regional economies and, especially, in rural ones. In this sense, family firms’ transgenerational continuity is essential to keeping the regional link stable over time. However, family firm succession threatens not only firm survival but also regional stability. In this sense, the topic of family firm succession has received less academic and policy attention in terms of their regional ties across generations. To begin addressing this issue, I wonder whether successors have the same regional bonds as their predecessors. To investigate how succession affects the regional anchoring of family firms, this chapter analyses the characteristics of successors, their network connections, and their beliefs on how to do business. Based on a qualitative approach and through the lens of an institutional perspective, I explore case studies of successors in Basque family firms and analyse differences in the attitudes and behaviours between predecessors and successors. These differences indicate that successors have weaker regional embedding than their predecessors – i.e., the existence of regional dis-embedding process. This chapter discusses the potential consequences of family firm dis-embedding for regions and their economic development.
... Previous research has showed that Basque family entrepreneurs actively participate in these cultural activities together with their local community (Lenz and Glückler, 2020). Thus, the relational infrastructure of traditional Basque family firms can be described similarly to what Glückler et al. (2020) found for the region of Heilbronn-Franconia: little connection between firms in terms of collaboration, but a cohesive non-business network within the local community, and strong intra-firm relations due to pronounced family logics as guiding principles. ...
... Integrating the institutional dimension of policy program design, one can add the Program Congruence Hypothesis postulating that policy programs are more successful if they are congruent with the existing institutional arrangement of the policy sector and the political system. This wording is inspired by existing research, although there remains some terminological confusion when congruence and coherence are used synonymously (Lenz & Glückler, 2020;Rodrigo et al., 2009). Congruence means the extent to which an adopted policy fits the existing mode of governance. ...
The Programmatic Action Framework (PAF) is a relatively new theoretical perspective that adds a complementary lens to the explanation of policy processes and policy change. Yet, a key requirement of a valid policy process framework is its capacity to be proven wrong. Besides the empirical cases that provide evidence for the occurrence of programmatic action, it is necessary to present examples in which programmatic action did not occur, and to explain why this is the case. Proceeding from the observation that programmatic groups and policy programs existed in French and German health policy throughout the 1990s, this contribution answers the question why in 2020, programmatic action is still present in France but not in Germany and why the German policy program did not survive the financial crisis of 2008. It argues that misfit to pre-existing institutional logics and changing institutional logics in the course of programmatic action hinder program success. © 2021 The Authors. European Policy Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Policy Studies Organization.
... Previous research has showed that Basque family entrepreneurs actively participate in these cultural activities together with their local community (Lenz and Glückler, 2020). Thus, the relational infrastructure of traditional Basque family firms can be described similarly to what Glückler et al. (2020) found for the region of Heilbronn-Franconia: little connection between firms in terms of collaboration, but a cohesive non-business network within the local community, and strong intra-firm relations due to pronounced family logics as guiding principles. ...
The interaction between institutional settings and Entrepreneurial Families (EFs)
is two-fold. Extant literature has attempted to understand how institutional
settings can affect Family Businesses’ embeddedness. Both perspectives are
complementary and necessary to recognise that EFs are not only locally
embedded in their territories, but they are also entrenched in institutions. Despite
this, how different institutional settings impact on EFs’ local embeddedness
remains unexplored. To fill this gap, we combine institutional theory and family
business research to perform a qualitative investigation. Drawing on the Varieties
of Capitalism institutional categorisation, an exploratory study is carried out by
including four European regions from countries that are positioned as a
Coordinated Market Economy (CME) (Germany), a Liberal Market Economy
(LME) (United Kingdom) and two cases of Mediterranean capitalist system
(France and Spain). 43 semi-structured interviews were conducted across the
regions and analysed through an open-coding process. Findings unveil that EFs’
local embeddedness is conditioned by different institutional settings in different
ways, namely through codified mechanisms (CME and Spain) and through nonformalised mechanisms (LME and France). These are unfolded in 20
mechanisms, which contribute to territorial policies adjustments depending on the
category of institutional setting where EFs are locally embedded.
A key problem of downscaling or transferring policies across regions is embedding these policies into a place for them to unleash the full potential of regional economies. This paper elaborates on the analytical framework of “institutional context” to bridge the gap between rich theorizations and poor empirical capture of institutions in studies of regional development. The institutional context is constituted by three pillars—regulations, organizations, and institutions—as well as by the interrelations between these pillars. Applied to the British region of Coventry and Warwickshire, a qualitative analysis of expert interviews finds institutional patterns of short‐termism, moderate levels of social capital and an embryonic relational infrastructure to constrain the place‐based strategy for industrial diversification. This regional case illustrates the more general challenge for regional policy in the UK of devising place‐based strategies under conditions of continuous rescaling of regional governance and the implementation of a new National Industrial Strategy. In conclusion, the analysis suggests a shift from “nodal” to “linking” policies that support cross‐network connections and help grow a regional field for collective action to cross‐fertilize knowledge and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging industries.
The present study analyzes the nexus among business growth, ownership structure, and local embeddedness—that is, the involvement of economic actors in a geographically bound social structure—in rural and urban contexts. This work combines regional economics with studies on family business and firm growth and uses a coarsened matched sample of privately held Swedish firms. The findings indicate that family firms benefit more than nonfamily firms from local embeddedness and as such they achieve higher levels of growth and that this effect is more pronounced in rural areas. Research implications are shared in the Conclusion section.
In this chapter the authors investigate the adaptability of regional production systems—characterized by localized learning dynamics—to globalization processes. In applying an institutional perspective to the analysis of regional economic change in Italian industrial districts, the argument is developed that successful adaptation is most likely in situations of hybrid institutional adjustments, in which fundamental institutional change aimed at triggering new economic developments in certain industry segments is combined with institutional persistence in others in order to actively integrate long-established industries into the restructuring process. This is illustrated empirically by analyzing regional restructuring over the past 35 years in the Canavese district in Italy, a district traditionally dominated by the automotive–metallurgical industry around Fiat and the electronics–mechatronics industry around Olivetti.
This chapter deals with a unique Basque invention—the gastronomic society, sometimes also referred to as the cooking society (in Spanish, sociedad gastronomica; in Basque, txoko). The author gives a brief overview of the historical origins of the txoko and its developments until the present time and discusses the formal and informal dimensions of the txoko that give life to the institution. He also notes the homogenization and differentiation processes that explain some of the cultural peculiarities of the Basque Country and its culinary geography and history. The chapter concludes with an attempt to contextualize the phenomenon of the gastronomic society, particularly in relation to the unique position that the txoko occupies as an institution between the public and the private sphere.
Scholarship on institutions across the social sciences faces a set of fundamental dilemmas. On the one hand, it needs to explain how institutions change. Yet explanations of change which point to external factors run the risk of reducing institutions to a mere transmission belt for other, more fundamental causes. On the other, it needs to explain how institutions can have meaningful consequences. Yet in practice it is often hard to distinguish the institutions that cause a particular behavior from that behavior itself. In this chapter, the author shows how, these dilemmas affect the relatively discrete approaches to institutions offered by rational choice, historical institutionalist and sociological institutionalist accounts. He map out the different ways in which authors have sought to resolve these dilemmas and then briefly outlines an alternative approach that borrows from evolutionary theory and an understanding of institutions as congregations of beliefs to offer a better answer to these problems.
This chapter explores the dynamic nature of institutions in response to changes in regulations and the institutional context. Seeking to refine the understanding of how and to which extent institutions change or sustain, the authors dismantle two institutions by analyzing the dynamics of their form and function separately. They propose a simple taxonomic model that helps explain how institutions can either sustain their form while their function responds to a changing institutional context (institutional drift) or, vice versa, retain their function while adapting their form to an altered context (institutional morphosis). Empirically, the latter case is illustrated by public procurement in Germany’s construction sector, whereas the journeyman years of artisans serve as an example of drift. The authors thus adopt an endogenous perspective and foster finer-grained concepts of institutional change that might help improve the understanding of the workings of policies that are at odds with or consistent with the underlying institutional reality.
Institutions have a decisive impact on the prevalence and nature of entrepreneurship. To date, the impact of institutions on (productive) entrepreneurship and the effects of entrepreneurship on economic growth have largely been investigated in isolation. In this paper, we bring together institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth using a parsimonious growth model in a 3SLS specification. In our first stage, we regress multiple measures of entrepreneurial activity on institutional proxies that are known to correlate with more productive forms of entrepreneurial activity. Using the fitted values of this first-stage regression as our proxy for productive entrepreneurship, we can then estimate a panel growth regression following Islam (1995) in a second stage. The third stage then optimizes the estimation of the two equations simultaneously. Our results show that productive entrepreneurship contributes to economic growth. In our set of proxies for institutional quality, financial stability, small government, and perceived start-up skills are the most important predictors of such productive entrepreneurship.
Wegen fehlender amtlicher Statistiken schätzt das IfM Bonn seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre die Anzahl der Unternehmen in Deutschland, die vor der Übergabe stehen. Die vorliegende Schätzung für den Zeitraum 2018 bis 2022 kommt zum Ergebnis, dass etwa 150.000 Unternehmen mit rund 2,4 Mio. Beschäftigten zur Übergabe anstehen. Eine zusätzlich durchgeführte Approximation des Nachfolgegeschehens auf Basis der Gewerbeanzeigenstatistik belegt, dass die aktuelle Schätzung des IfM Bonn die Zahl der tatsächlich erfolgten Unter-nehmensübertragungen relativ gut abbildet. Wie letztlich die Nachfolge geregelt werden wird (familienintern, unternehmensintern oder-extern), ist wegen fehlender amtlicher Statistiken ebenfalls schwer vorherzusagen. Unsere Analysen lassen jedoch die Vermutung zu, dass gut die Hälfte der vor der Nachfolgefrage stehenden Familienunternehmen ihr Unternehmen innerhalb der Familie weitergibt. Etwa 18 % der Familienunternehmen werden von Mitarbei-tern übernommen und die restlichen 29 % werden an Externe verkauft.
In the European Union and its neighborhood, regional development has increasingly come to focus on agglomerations during the last three decades. Notably, during the 1990s and early 2000s, clustering was the major policy focus in regional development. Currently, the concept of smart specialization is applied all over the European Union and is attracting interest in the EU’s neighborhood. The tourism sector particularly tends to agglomerate regionally and even locally. While there is a large body of literature describing tourism clusters and while tourism features as a priority sector in many regional development strategies such as smart specialization strategies, there is a research gap on policy approaches applying agglomeration-oriented policy concepts to tourism destinations in an institution-sensitive way. This article argues that both cluster policy and smart specialization can be of considerable value for institution-sensitive tourism development, either when adapted to the specificities of the tourism sector or when integrating tourism development into wider, cross-sectoral strategies of regional development. Such a policy can be a valuable tool for local and regional development, provided that policies are designed in an institution-sensitive manner and respond to the particular institutional context prevailing in a tourist destination. The article illustrates some preliminary thoughts for institution-sensitive tourism development through cluster policy and smart specialization in Cyprus, Israel, and Tunisia.
This paper develops a research agenda toward the systematic inclusion of institutions into the analysis of regional policy effectiveness. Departing from the commonly shared observation that formal rules of regulation and policies not always lead to the intended outcomes, we argue that institutions are crucial mediators of the workings of regulation and regional policies in specific geographical contexts. By defining institutions as stable patterns of interactions based on legitimate mutual expectations (Bathelt and Glückler, 2014), we open analytical scope for analyzing the multiple relations between regulated rules and regular social practice. Hence, we build on Helmke and Levitsky's (2004) conception of the interdependencies between regulation and institutions, and extend their heuristic into a dynamic framework at the regional scale on how to pursue what we call institutional policy-making.
RESUMEN: El artículo desarrolla una agenda de investigación orientada a la inclusión sistemática de las instituciones en el análisis de la efectividad de la política regional. A partir de una observación comúnmente compartida de que las reglas formales de regulación y las políticas no siempre conducen a lograr los resultados perseguidos, se argumenta que las instituciones constituyen media-dores cruciales de los trabajos de regulación y de política regional en contextos geográficos específicos. A partir de definir las instituciones como estructuras es-tables de interacciones basadas en las mutuas expectativas legitimizadas (Bathelt y Gluckler, 2014), se abre un campo analítico para analizar las múltiples relacio-nes entre reglas reguladas y prácticas sociales regulares. A partir de ello y sobre la concepción de Helmke y Levitsky (2004) sobre las interdependencias entre regulación e instituciones se extiende su contenido en un marco dinámico a es-cala regional sobre cómo llevar a cabo lo que nosotros llamamos policy-making institucional.
Family business scholars assume that family business goals represent the nature of the firm's decision making and are driving forces (i.e., antecedents) of family firm behavior, performance, continuity, competitiveness, and sustainability. Without measuring family business goals, family business research—specifically, the family business theorizing process—is floating in the midst of assumptions used to justify observational descriptive data, such as differences between family and non-family firms and differences among various types of family firms. There remains a lack of clarity surrounding the theoretical definition of family business goals and an absence of methodological approaches to make the concept operative. In order to address this gap, this research applies an exploratory step-by-step methodology that combines both a theoretical and an empirical approach. First, following an inductive literature review, I theorize family business goals as a multidimensional concept combining two scales: economic versus non-economic orientation and family versus business orientation. Second, by using a unique Spanish database of family business, I use the partial least squares structural equation modeling method to confirm and extend the proposed theoretical multidimensional concept of family business goals.
This paper investigates the effect of related and unrelated variety on regional growth in West Germany. In particular, we analyze the role of regional absorptive capacity and new business formation for these effects. We find that West German regions benefit from both types of varieties. The positive effect of unrelated variety on growth is more pronounced in regions with higher levels of absorptive capacity in terms of R&D activities and with higher levels of new business formation. Such moderating effects cannot be found for related variety.
A series of significant recent trends in world development involve transformations taking place at multiple geographical scales. These transformations suggest that there are multiple pathways to development, that these pathways derive from the articulation and interdependence of governance structures/capacity and development models, and that these trends will lead to a radical reshaping of the international economic and political order. Our world remains a world of diverse civilizations whose national, regional urban, rural and local development trajectories require detailed investigation and research from a range of perspectives, including those of emerging economies themselves. International communication and exchange, deriving from these multiple experiences will contribute to inclusive cooperation and mutual learning.
This paper analyses the problem of corruption in the local government in Spain, where despite a complex and sophisticated set of local rules to ensure due process in town planning and urban development, a great number of corruption incidents have come to light. The explanation of this outcome rests in the combined effect of factors such as the bad design of both integrity rules and town planning policies, the relevance of informal institutions such as the patronage networks, and the existence of perverse incentives. The Spanish case highlights the important influence of local informal institutions for the actual working of formal ones.
There is an ever-increasing volume of studies investigating institutional logics, and yet qualitative methods for studying this phenomenon are not clear. In this essay, we examine how qualitative scholars convince their readers that they are actually studying institutional logics. We identify three different, but non-exclusive techniques that have been employed: pattern deducing, pattern matching, and pattern inducing. For each of these approaches, we explain the ontological assumptions, methodological techniques, challenges, and benefits. In addition, we provide examples of how specific studies have analyzed and presented qualitative data to improve theory about institutional logics.
The role of institutions in the promotion (or hindrance) of regional development has attracted increasing attention from scholars and policy-makers. This paper reviews recent contributions to this debate before sketching elements of a research agenda which addresses some key conjectural, methodological and political issues.
We investigate if private family firms have a greater environmental performance focus than nonfamily firms, and if this relationship is moderated by the strength of the firms’ social embeddedness. We empirically test these issues using a representative sample of 1452 private Australian small and medium-sized enterprises. Contrary to prevailing assumptions and previous indicative findings in the public firm context, our results show that family firms have a lower environmental performance focus than nonfamily firms. However, in cases where the firm is highly embedded in the social community, we find that family firms have a higher environmental performance focus. We explain our unexpected results by considering the role of financial risk in publicly held family firms. Accordingly, we posit that prior findings in the public firm context may be evidence of families expropriating wealth from nonfamily shareholders rather than altruistic pro-environmental behavior.
This article aims to shed light on how institutions shape innovative capacity, by focusing on how regional government quality affects innovative performance in the regions of Europe. By exploiting new data on quality of government, we assess how government quality and its components (control of corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness and government accountability) shape patenting across the regions of the European Union (EU). The results of the analysis—which are robust to controlling for the endogeneity of institutions—provide strong evidence of a link between the quality of government and the capacity of regions
to innovate. In particular, ineffective and corrupt governments represent a fundamental barrier for the innovative capacity of the periphery of the EU, strongly undermining any potential effect of any other measures aimed at promoting greater innovation. The results have important implications for the definition of innovation strategies in EU regions.
We draw on the institutional logics perspective to understand different approaches that family firms can use to manage the process of succession. Based on the analysis of 21 case studies of family firms in Germany, we identify four different ways of managing potentially conflicting family and commercial logics that are associated with four different succession processes. Our findings contribute to the family firm literature by improving our knowledge of the heterogeneity of family firms and by explaining different ways that the family logic can influence firm behavior. Moreover, we contribute to institutional theory by showing the importance of filtering mechanisms for organizations that must respond to coexisting logics.
In this paper, we draw attention to the influence of the institutional logic of family upon a broad range of organizations, and argue that their significance has not been fully realized within the realm of institutional theory and research. Drawing on extant literature, publicly available documents, and interview data, we highlight the prominence of the family logic in the Italian legal sector, where there is a dearth of family firms and the existence of a competing professional logic that interacts with the familial logic. Our research suggests that, even in a setting where logics of capitalism and profession dominate, the organizational form and practices of Italian law firms are significantly influenced by the family logic: firms remain small, resistant to mergers and forms of internationalization, and have successfully resisted the encroachment of invading foreign legal practices. We discuss the significance of the family logic and its manifestations in organizations, and map out future research directions about how multiple logics interact and reinforce each other in national settings.
Finding a successor has become a severe challenge for family firms in Germany. As family firms are disproportionately concentrated in rural economies, succession has also become a considerable threat for peripheral regions and their labor markets. It therefore lies in the interest of regional stakeholders to help support family business continuity. One way to do this is by providing consulting services for family entrepreneurs, especially when searching for a family-external successor. Succession consultancy, however is still in its infancy. Applying the framework of the organizational field that centers on the concept of legitimacy, this paper examines the strategies consultants employ in order to get selected by family entrepreneurs in their succession process, as well as consultants’ strategies to match family firms with external successors. Based on expert interviews with succession consultants in the region of Upper Palatinate in Bavaria, we demonstrate the importance of geography and interpersonal linkages in establishing legitimacy in the early stages of field formation, when heterogeneous groups of actors offer their services without set rules or standards. Our content analysis sheds light on the variety of strategies based on trust, networked, and public reputation in order to gain legitimacy as consultants, depending on whether or not they can draw on existing relationships with family firms. We furthermore identify a discrepancy between these legitimation strategies and the actual ways that consultants use to match family firms with external successors. Here, regardless of their previous contact with family firms, geography plays a major role in constraining both consulting and succession: Family firms more readily accept local consultants, and the consultants also preferred to screen succession candidates through their regional networks due to the higher chances of successful succession when finding external successors from within the same region. Conceptually, our analysis contributes to institutional theory by carving out legitimacy-enhancing mechanisms in emerging organizational fields, and by demonstrating the crucial role of geography and interpersonal linkages for succession as well as field formation processes.
Recent research has called for institutional approaches to help surpass the limitations of structural growth models in accounting for regionally specific development paths. The region of Heilbronn-Franconia in Baden-Württemberg is one such puzzling case for its economic and industrial structure is inconsistent with extant models, and yet the region represents one of the most prosperous economies with the highest concentration of hidden champions in Germany. This paper explores the institutions –patterns of social interactions and underlying beliefs – that characterize entrepreneurial practices on the levels of the firm, inter-firm and civic relations of this rural region. Based on a mixed-methods approach, including 132 interviews with managers and a survey of firms in strategic sectors, we unveil the interaction patterns of ‘life-long engagement’, ‘tinkering’, ‘doing’, ‘leadership networking’, and ‘civic engagement’ as well as the underlying beliefs that inform these patterns, as the institutions that are coherent with a particular mode of continuous innovation and entrepreneurial stamina. We conclude by proposing the
hourglass model as the institutional morphology of rural industrialism.
Regional economic divergence has become a threat to economic progress, social cohesion and political stability in Europe. Market processes and policies that are supposed to spread prosperity and opportunity are no longer sufficiently effective. The evidence points to the existence of several different modes of regional economic performance in Europe, responding to different development challenges and opportunities. Both mainstream and heterodox theories have gaps in their ability to explain the existence of these different regional trajectories and the weakness of the convergence processes among them. Therefore, a different approach is required, one that strengthens Europe's strongest regions but develops new approaches to promote opportunity in industrial declining and less-developed regions. There is ample new theory and evidence to support such an approach, which we have labelled 'place-sensitive distributed development policy'. © The Author(s) (2018). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected]
Dieses Buch vermittelt auf verständliche Weise das Wissen, um qualitative und Mixed-Methods-Daten mit MAXQDA auszuwerten. Die Autoren verfügen über jahrzehntelange Forschungserfahrung und decken in diesem Buch ein breites Methodenspektrum ab. Sie beschränken sich nicht auf einzelne Forschungsansätze, sondern vermitteln das Know-how, um verschiedene Methoden – von der Grounded Theory über Diskursanalysen bis zur Qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse – mit MAXQDA umsetzen zu können. Darüber hinaus werden spezielle Themen fokussiert, wie Transkription, Kategorienbildung, Visualisierungen, Videoanalyse, Concept-Maps, Gruppenvergleiche und die Erstellung von Literaturreviews.
Der Inhalt
• Wie MAXQDA optimal in jeder Phase Ihres Projekts genutzt wird
• Wie Daten transkribiert, exploriert und paraphrasiert werden
• Wie Sie Daten codieren und Kategoriensysteme gestalten
• Wie Sie mit Memos, Variablen und Zusammenfassungen arbeiten
Wie spezielle Datenarten analysiert werden (Fokusgruppen, Online-Surveys, Literaturangaben etc.) • Wie Sie effizient im Team Daten mit MAXQDA analysieren
Die Autoren
Dr. Stefan Rädiker ist freiberuflicher Berater und Trainer für Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation. Im Zentrum seiner Tätigkeiten steht die computergestützte Analyse von qualitativen und Mixed-Methods-Daten mit der Analysesoftware MAXQDA.
Dr. Udo Kuckartz ist emeritierter Professor für empirische Erziehungswissenschaft und Methoden der Sozialforschung an der Philipps-Universität Marburg.
Persistent poverty, economic decay, and lack of opportunities are at the root of considerable discontent in declining and lagging-behind areas the world over. Poor development prospects and an increasing belief that these places have ‘no future’ – as economic dynamism has been posited to be increasingly dependent on agglomeration economies – have led many of these so-called ‘places that don’t matter’ to revolt against the status quo. The revolt has come via an unexpected source: the ballot-box in a wave of political populism with strong territorial, rather than social foundations. I will argue that the populist wave is challenging the sources of existing well-being in both the less-dynamic and the more prosperous areas and that better, rather than more, place-sensitive territorial development policies are needed in order to find a solution to the problem. Place-sensitive development policies need, however, to stay clear of the welfare, income-support, and big investment projects of past development strategies if they are to be successful and focus on tapping into untapped potential and on providing opportunities to those people living in the places that ‘don’t matter’.
Persistent poverty, economic decay and lack of opportunities are at the root of considerable discontent in declining and lagging-behind areas the world over. Poor development prospects and an increasing belief that these places have "no future"-as economic dynamism has been posited to be increasingly dependent on agglomeration economies-have led many of these so-called "places that don't matter" to revolt against the status quo. The revolt has come via an unexpected source: the ballot-box, in a wave of political populism with strong territorial, rather than social foundations. I will argue that the populist wave is challenging the sources of existing well-being in both the less-dynamic and the more prosperous areas and that better, rather than more, place-sensitive territorial development policies are needed in order to find a solution to the problem. Place-sensitive development policies need, however, to stay clear of the welfare, income support and big investment projects of past development strategies if they are to be successful and focus on tapping into untapped potential and on providing opportunities to those people living in the places that "don't matter".
Positive and negative views of family firms and their performance abound. Although there have been explanations for this divergence based on conditions of governance and context, the institutional environment has been less thoroughly explored as a source of these differences. We argue that the blend of family and market institutional logics in the regional communities where firms operate can have an important impact on the governance arrangements and financial performance of family firms. Specifically, we find that family-intensive governance is more common where family logic predominates in a region, and does best when this logic remains at modest levels or is countered by market logic. We test and support these notions in a comprehensive sample of private family firms in Italy, an ideal context in which distinct historically-determined logics exists among its 20 regions.
Examination of family firms’ interactions with institutional contexts has been a major research stream within family business scholarship. This study reviews three decades of research at the intersection of family firms and institutional contexts. Our review sample includes 124 articles published in 24 top-level journals across several disciplines. We adopt an institutional theory lens to synthesize this literature and explicate main understandings about how family firm behaviors/outcomes are influenced by or may influence formal and informal institutions in their institutional contexts. Moreover, we discuss major research gaps and unproductive biases in this research area and provide directions for future research.
Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively farther behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does?The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world. [Publisher's abstract]
Family business succession is a vital issue in corporate finance and management. Drawing from corporate governance perspective in finance and socio-emotional wealth approach in management, this paper reveals the interesting relationship between religion and family business succession intention. Using nationwide family firm survey data, we find that family firm founders' religiosity is conducive to their succession intention. Family firm founders' religiosity and family firm's socioemotional wealth interactively strengthen management succession intention, but not ownership succession intention. We also find that Eastern religious beliefs, especially Buddhism, strengthen the religiosity-succession relation in Chinese family firms.
- This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
Transport infrastructure investment is a cornerstone of growth-promoting strategies. However, the link between infrastructure investment and economic performance remains unclear. This may be a consequence of overlooking the role of government institutions. This paper assesses the connection between regional quality of government and the returns of different types of road infrastructure in the regions of the European Union. The results unveil the influence of regional quality of government on the economic returns of transport infrastructure. In weak institutional contexts, investment in motorways—the preferred option by governments—yields significantly lower returns than the more humble secondary road. Government institutions also affect the returns of transport maintenance investment.
Adding to approaches highlighting network dynamics as a basis for regional economic development, increased attention is paid to institutions as contextual factors contributing to explaining how and why economies change. Research has shown that firms tend to react differently to the same institutional configurations, with the main explanatory factors being their sectoral backgrounds and intra-firm characteristics. This study adds to these insights by examining a regional economy in France, that of Cognac, in which 300 firms are operating under homogeneous institutional preconditions. Despite these similarities, we identify different development trajectories from the 1990s onwards. Our observations illustrate how firms’ responses to external change diverge and bring them on different trajectories due to different positions in the industry hierarchy and different experiences and capabilities among individuals within firms. The study contributes to the better understanding of mechanisms of path dependence, which have gained wide recognition in the literature in the recent decades.
Die Unternehmensnachfolge ist eines der interessantesten, aber auch komplexesten Gestaltungsfelder von Unternehmen. In diesem Gestaltungsfeld treffen betriebswirtschaftliche, steuerliche, gesellschaftsrechtliche, erbrechtliche und insbesondere auch psychologische Faktoren aufeinander.
Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively farther behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does?
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.
The cataloging of failures when putting policies in place has been the hallmark of implementation studies since the 1970s. The numerous lessons from this research can be distilled into guidance about improving policy design to enhance implementation prospects and other suggestions for overcoming administrative obstacles. This contribution extends these lessons by addressing how the governing arrangements for addressing policy problems—the policy regimes that are put in place—either work to reinforce or undermine political commitments enshrined within policies. Regimes mediate feedback effects of policies in affecting policy legitimacy, coherence, and durability. These notions about policy regimes are contrasted with traditional perspectives about implementation failures. The value of a regime perspective in studying policy implementation and governing is illustrated for the case of the Affordable Care Act in the United States of America (USA).
It is generally accepted that a family's involvement in the business makes the family business unique; but the literature continues to have difficulty defining the family business. We argue for a distinction between theoretical and operational definitions. A theoretical definition must identify the esence that distinguishes the family business from other businesses. It is the standard against which operational definitions must be measured. We propose a theoretical definition based on behavior as the essence of a family business. Our conceptual analysis shows that most of the operational definitions based on the components of family involvement overlap with our theoretical definition. Our empirical results suggest, however, that the components of family involvement typically used in operational definitions are weak predictors of intentions and, therefore, are not always reliable for distinguishing family businesses from non-family ones.
This paper examines the roles of local institutions in economic development at the local level. Drawing upon comparative analysis
of the 39 local enterprise partnerships emergent in England since 2010, it demonstrates: how local economic development institutions
work within multi-agent and multi-scalar institutional settings; the ways institutional genealogy shapes processes of layering
and recombining as well as dismantling and improvising in episodes of institutional change and the analytical themes able
to explore the roles and functions of institutions in local economic development.
The relationships between family firms and their institutional contexts are critical to family firm legitimacy and sustainability. However, we still know little about how these relationships influence firm behavior. We draw on the institutional literature—institutional logics in particular—to investigate the behavior of different types of wineries within the Okanagan region in Western Canada. We analyze how family, business, and community logics guide firm behavior, and how different combinations of logics lead firms to take action that modifies the field to support their own legitimacy and sustainability.
Based on socioemotional wealth theory, we argue that family and founder firms differ from other firms with respect to corporate social responsibility concerns. We further argue that the ownership and management dimensions of founder firms have opposite effects. Using a dataset of large public firms in the US, we show that family and founder ownership is associated with fewer corporate social responsibility concerns (CSR concerns), whereas the presence of a family and founder CEO is associated with greater CSR concerns. We conclude that it is reasonable to distinguish between family and founder firms and their respective ownership and management dimensions when analyzing CSR in large firms.
Research suggests that moral values are more prevalent in family than non-family firms. This paper offers a model and propositions that suggest how family values are clarified, reinforced, and socialized into firms. First, social capital within the family helps clarify and reinforce values. Then, families socialize the business in their values through multiple family members working in the business, the founder promoting family values in the firm, or multiple family owners agreeing on and promoting values in the business.
This is an edited e-book written by a research network of Spanish economic geographers and economists. J.M. Albertos & J.L. Sanchez are the editors of this volume.
The demographic and essence approaches have emerged as two separate streams to tackle the issue of how the family affects family firm performance. However, this debate is still open. After analyzing 80 published articles from 2007 to 2011, I conclude that the contradictions between these two approaches come from implicit assumptions that are not modeled when each approach is tested individually. Therefore, the aim of this article is to put the demographic and essence approaches to the test. To reach this objective, I developed a theoretical framework to analyze the relationship between family management involvement, family-oriented strategic decision making, and family firm performance. I conclude that contradictory conclusions may result from each model whether they are tested separately or together.
This paper discusses whether institutions matter for regional development and how to integrate them in regional development strategies. It finds that while institutions are crucial for economic development, generating an institution-based regional development strategy is likely to be undermined by the lack of definition of what are adequate, solid, and efficient institutions. Problems related to the measurement of institutions, to their space and time variability, to the difficulties in establishing the right mix of formal and informal institutions, and to the endogeneity between institutions and economic development make one-size-fits-all approaches to operationalizing institutions difficult. Development strategies specifically tailored to the conditions of different regional institutional environments across regions may yield greater returns.