Group items tagged

"This article analyzes the impact of not controlling for "demographic sample" differences on research results in the area of comparative family/nonfamily business research. Using different statistical methods with and without control for "demographic sample" differences, the results show that controlling for these firm demographics in a bivariate as well as a multivariate framework is very important to discover "real" differences between family and nonfamily firms. We found "real" differences for export, budgeting, variable reward systems, profitability and gender, educational degree, and tenure of the CEO. Strategy, networking, long-term planning and control systems, perceived environmental uncertainty, growth, and management training, classified by prior empirical research as different between family and nonfamily firms, do not differ."

"Organizational knowledge creation is the process of making available and amplifying knowledge created by individuals as well as crystallizing and connecting it to an organization's knowledge system. In other words, what individuals come to know in their (work-)life benefits their colleagues and, eventually, the larger organization. The theory explaining this process - the organizational knowledge creation theory - has developed rapidly in academia and been broadly diffused in management practice over the last 15 years. This article reviews the theory's central elements and identifies the evolving paths taken by academic work that uses the theory as a point of departure. The article furthermore proposes areas in which future research can advance the theory of organizational knowledge creation."

"This paper examines ways in which patriarchalqfamilistic cultural systems condition responses to the kinds of social and economic changes that challenge family-owned businesses. Using a case study of an ethnic enclave in the southeastern United States, the paper looks at intergenerational succession, paying particular attention to how small firms manage to transfer control within the family. Key to successful transfer is the presence of trust and the utilization of social capital as well as the ability of successive generations to acquire skills that enable them to identify new market niches. The manuscript also discusses how firms manage conflict between old and new ideas, develop informal mechanisms for incorporating new ideas, and maintain the flexibility necessary for market survival."

Research undertaken by BIS