Research Question/Issue: A contentious and prominent research question in the management literature is whether publicly listed family firms (FFs) outperform other types of corporations. Through a research synthesis of all available studies on the performance of US FFs, we address this question directly. We also extend the debate by raising three salient follow-up questions. First, is the performance differential between FFs and non-FFs attributable to a unique set of strategic choices? Second, do FF performance effects persist across generational transitions in FF control? Third, are performance differentials across generations attributable to intergenerational shifts in corporate governance and strategy?
Research Findings/Insights: With respect to our primary research question, we find that the balance of evidence indicates that (US) FFs outperform other types of public corporations. We also evaluate competing narratives regarding which
strategies are characteristic of FFs, and demonstrate that their diversification, internationalization, and financing strategies mediate the FF-performance relationship in manners consistent with the narratives advanced by certain leading FF scholars, but not others. Further, we find that the performance of (US) FFs drops dramatically after the first generation and show that this negative performance differential is due to the much more conservative patterns of strategic decision making enacted by successor generations.
This article documents the results of a research workshop bringing together six perspectives on social entrepreneurship. The idea was to challenge existing concepts of the economy, the firm, and entrepreneurship in order to shed new light on social entrepreneurship and on our existing theoretical frameworks. The first two contributions use a macro-perspective and discuss the notion of adaptive societies and the tragedies of disharmonization, respectively. Taking a management perspective, the next two focus on the limits of conventional assumptions in management theory, particularly human capital theory and resource-based view. The final two contributions follow an entrepreneurship perspective highlighting the usefulness of mobilization theory and the business model lens to social entrepreneurship. Despite this diversity, all contributions share the fact that they challenge narrow definitions of the unit of analysis in social entrepreneurship; they illustrate the aspect of social embeddedness, and they argue for an open but-disciplined diversity of theories in social entrepreneurship research.
Eigentümer von Familienunternehmen sind bestrebt, ihre Firma über Generationen hinweg in der Familie zu halten. Aber wer eignet sich am besten dafür, die Nachfolge anzutreten, und welche Faktoren fördern die Übernahme durch die nächste Generation? In unserer ersten Studie Zurück nach Hause oder hinaus in die Welt? Karriereabsichten der nächsten Generation in Familienunternehmen (2012) stellten wir die Frage, was Studierende dazu veranlasst, eine Laufbahn im Familienunternehmen anzustreben. In dieser Studie setzen wir die Analyse der Beweggründe fort, diesmal aus einem noch internationaleren Blickwinkel.
This innovative textbook covers the most important challenges facing family businesses. Practice-inspired and research-based, it emphasizes both practice and theory along with concepts, cases and reflection questions to illustrate key topics.
This text discusses the relevance of family firms across the globe, their unique strengths and weaknesses, their governance, strategic management, the succession process, drivers of long-term success and interpersonal dynamics. Taking a holistic and international perspective, the book combines management concepts, research findings, practical examples and case studies to provide a unique source of insight and inspiration for students and practitioners in the most prominent type of business organization in the world.
This textbook’s comprehensive coverage of topics and combination of didactical formats makes it ideal for students studying family firms, and a useful reference for professors, advisors, and practitioners as well.
Personal and motivational patterns of intentional founders have been researched in great depth; however, antecedents to career choices of intentional successors have been conspicuously missing in entrepreneurship research. By drawing on theory of planned behavior, we investigate how intentional founders, successors, and employees differ in terms of locus of control and entrepreneurial self-efficacy as well as independence and innovation motives. We find that transitive likelihood of career intent depends on degree of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the independence motive. Unexpectedly, we see that high levels of internal locus of control lead to a preference of employment, which challenges traditional entrepreneurship research and suggests that the feasibility of an entrepreneurial career path does not automatically make it desirable. Our findings suggests that students with family business background are pessimistic about being in control, but optimistic about their efficacy to pursue an entrepreneurial career
Family business owners have a strong desire to keep their company under family control across generations. But who is best suited to take over, and which factors encourage succession within the next generation?
In our previous study, Coming home or breaking free? Career choice intentions of the next generation in family businesses (2011), we explored what motivates students to pursue a career in the family business. In this study, we continue that exploration of succession intentions but with an even broader international scope.
Some of our more interesting findings include:
- Only 3.5% of all next generation members want to take over their parents' firm directly after college graduation; 4.9% plan to do so five years later.
- The pool of potential successors who are generally open to becoming a successor is much larger (19.8% of all students with family business background).
- Since 2011, succession intentions have been decreasing; we estimate a decrease of around 30%. Likely causes include a more attractive job market and potential successors developing deeper insights into what it takes to assume control of the family business. While fewer next-generation members intend to become successors, those who do may be more motivated and better prepared.
- Female potential successors have weaker succession intentions than their male
counterparts. In addition, we identify different important drivers of succession intentions on the cultural and institutional level, the individual level, the firm level, and the family level.
Family companies are characterized by their unique combination of dynastic will,
family ownership and professional management: this connection produces a dynamic that offers competitive advantages, but it also harbors potential risks.
Generational change in family businesses is a highly complex process and often constitutes a balancing act for everyone involved - family, company and owner. Resolving issues is both emotionally led as well as practical; alongside fiscal, legal and financial questions are the very personal aims and values of the family members and, in particular, the views and ambitions of the next generation of family business owners. This study attempts to provide insight on the succession intentions of students with a family business background. It draws from a large- scale dataset collected in 2011 as part of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) project, which analyzes the entrepreneurial intentions of students around the world. Given that the founding intentions of students have been analyzed in great depth over recent years, the present study complements the picture by focusing on succession intentions. We believe that our study provides some fundamentally new insights into family firm succession.
We investigate in detail what motivates students to pursue a career in their parents' firm. To this end, we explore the individual, family, business and societal-level drivers of succession intentions and conclude with the implications for both senior generation family firm owners and students from family businesses.
According to the STEP research framework, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is one key element of transgenerational value creation. EO refers to key entrepreneurial processes in a company, i.e. to the methods, practices and decision-making styles managers use to act entrepreneurially. 3 EO consists of five main dimensions and several sub dimensions. However, there is a puzzle. Many studies suggest that the higher EO, the more successful a company is. But this seems not always to be true. Just think of many of the dot.com firms at the end of the 1990s. Firm members could act very autonomously, the companies were very innovative, took high risks, were very proactive and very aggressive in the market. However, most of them were not able to survive for more than a few years. So how entrepreneurial has a firm to be in order to achieve long-term success?
