?Adaptation to discontinuous technological change constitutes a major, yet vincible challenge for established companies. This book reveals crucial differences between the challenges that family-owned and managed firms face as compared to non-family firms. Series of case studies in the German retailing and book publishing industries illustrate those differences. Empirical evidence as presented in the book further shows how organizational identity affects whether and in what way firms adapt to radical shifts in their environment.
Metallic nanoparticles have been studied intensively during the last decades because of their intriguing optical properties: Due to collective oscillations of the conducting electrons - the so called plasmonic oscillations - they absorb light in the visible spectrum. The resonance frequency thereby sensitively depends on parameters such as the particle size and shape as well as the dielectric constant of the medium. DNA exhibits outstanding recognition properties and can be modified easily. Thus, template-directed material synthesis along synthetic DNA is a promising route to grow nanoparticles of defined shape and size and with defined interparticle-spacing.
In this study, two different methods are used to deposit silver on oligonucleotides of different lengths, ranging from 23 to 96 basepairs, in order to synthesize metallic nanorods of controlled aspect ratios. The first method involves the specific labeling of nucleotides with aldehyde groups, followed by exposure to a Tollens reagent and a developer. The second method relies on the photoinduced deposition of silver onto unmodified DNA samples. Several preparation parameters such as the DNA sequence, buffer salt type, silver concentration and UV illumination time are varied systematically.
The metallized DNA molecules are characterized concerning their optical and structural properties. Absorption spectra show plasmon peaks around 420nm. Peak positions, intensities and bandwidths are analyzed. Dynamic Light Scattering studies in solution provide information about the particle sizes as well as their structural asymmetry. Both optical techniques are used to observe the temporal evolution of the nanoparticle growth in the Tollens metallization process. Structural information is inferred from Atomic Force Microscopy; for that purpose, the particles are deposited on single-crystalline silicon substrates.
Social capital has been envisaged as an important theoretical perspective to explain the essence and behavior of family firms. By drawing on empirical evidence from multiple case studies in the German publishing sector, I explore how utilization of different forms of organizational social capital affects family firms' innovativeness in times of uncertainty, thereby revealing positive and negative implications of utilization of organizational social capital. I find that building on firm-internal bonding ties fosters innovativeness, whereas drawing on external bridging ties impedes innovativeness. Furthermore, my results provide evidence that usage of internal ties is most pronounced in firms with medium family influence.
Given the importance of non-economic considerations throughout the entrepreneurial life cycle, I aim to investigate the drivers of owner-managers' "emotional pricing" when they wish to sell their firms to successors. Emotional pricing thereby denotes those elements of the owner-managers' price expectations that cannot be traced back to economic considerations. Building on arguments from behavioral finance, I hypothesize that "emotional pricing," which in this study reflects owner-managers' willingness to sell the firm at a discount, is driven by the reluctance to lose access to information about the firm and to lose influence on the firm, and by an aversion to putting the firm's future at risk. In particular, I argue that a long-term relationship between an owner-manager and a firm, a familiar relationship between an owner-manager and a successor, and situational contingencies-especially unsatisfactory firm performance-increase the owner-manager's emotional-pricing component. I test the hypotheses using a sample of 1,354 owner-managers of Swiss SMEs, who provided their views on their exit intentions. I subsequently compare those results to 455 actual ownership transfers involving Swiss SMEs.
We reevaluate the female underperformance hypothesis by challenging the assumption that female-owned ventures are more likely to fail. Instead of equating exit with failure, we draw on exit literature and feminist theories to argue that female entrepreneurs are actually more likely than males to exit voluntarily. We argue for further gender differences by using an even more fine-grained
conceptualization of entrepreneurial exit (failure, exit for personal reasons,
and exit for other professional/financial opportunities). Post-hoc analyses also point to within-gender heterogeneity depending on family status. A sample probe of 219 Spanish entrepreneurs who had exited their business supports our overall reasoning.
