We expect start-ups and high technology companies in general to be innovators. We know, in contrast, that large incumbents are likely to want to continue to exploit their past innovations rather than venture into new innovations that may cannibalize current products and/or ultimately fail. How do family businesses fit into the innovation picture? A study […]
Read More… from Family Firms Innovate Less But Better: Their Boards Make a Difference
Launched in 2005, the STEP (Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices) Project is a global research initiative involving 35 universities in various regions of the world, including 10 in Europe, that studies entrepreneurship within business families. In 2017, the European STEP Council released the results of a survey of more than 350 successful transgenerational family businesses in […]
Read More… from Transgenerational Entrepreneurship in Family Businesses
Stewardship describes the deeply felt commitment of managers and employees to the success of the company above their own individual interests. A stewardship climate is one in which stewardship is modeled and rewarded by leaders and shared by employees in the company. Past research has identified six dimensions of stewardship. Intrinsic motivation. In a stewardship […]
Read More… from Stewardship Climate Scale Highlights Stewardship Behaviours in Family Firms
Both agency theory and stewardship theory help explain organizational dynamics, although starting from very different assumptions. Agency theory describes the relationship between the shareholders (called ‘principals’) and the company’s managers and executives (called ‘agents’) as a collaboration between parties with different interests: principals are focused on the success of the company while agents are focused […]
Read More… from A Symphony of Agency and Stewardship Values Ensures Family Business Success
Family-controlled companies are associated with tradition and continuity, but that doesn’t mean they’re ‘behind the curve’. A recent study suggests that when it comes to sustainable performance, they can beat other companies hands down. The study compared 149 large listed family businesses with similar non-family companies in seven countries — the US, Canada, France, Spain, […]
Read More… from Surviving a Recession: Seven Lessons from Family Businesses
Family businesses are large contributors to the Indian economy, forming an integral part of Indian culture and society. They account for approximately 85% of business in the country, but have traditionally been plagued by concerns about their susceptibility to emotional decision-making, non-professionalism, governance issues, etc. Now, however, it seems that family businesses are gradually shedding […]
Read More… from Family Business in India: Meeting 21st Century Challenges
There is a hotel in Japan — Houshi Ryokan — that has been run by the same family for approximately 1,300 years. Forty generations have managed to maintain control of the business, epitomizing what IESE Business School’s Josep Tàpies and Lucía Ceja refer to as “psychological ownership.” In their article published in IESE Insight, Tàpies […]
Read More… from Family Business Ownership and the Next Generation
A report published in 2012, Value Creation in Listed European Family Firms, showed that listed European family businesses have created more value over the last decade than non-family concerns, achieving far higher prices on the stock exchange. Using a sample of 2,423 European listed companies monitored during the period 2001-2010, it took a much broader […]
Read More… from The Ties That Bind: How Family Businesses Create Value
