Family Business Performance from a Governance Perspective: A Review of Empirical Research

Given the complexity of the family business phenomenon, empirical research has still reached no consensus on whether family control is beneficial or detrimental to firm performance. To shed new light on this issue, this paper covers more than 350 articles published in 37 top finance and management journals. More specifically, it provides an in‐depth analysis of the family business governance system in three steps. First, after examining the various family business definitions and measures of performance used in empirical research, the authors discuss the findings on the direct effect of family control on performance in different geographical regions. Second, the authors pay special attention to the choice of ownership structures by business families and analyse how family owners influence strategic decisions faced by their corporations, including the succession process. Finally, the authors explore the interaction of family control with other governance devices to gain a better understanding of family firms' corporate decision‐making and performance. The holistic approach highlights the need to contemplate the multiple relations that exist among the various governance dimensions of family firms to explain their unique performance. In addition to enhancing understanding of family business conduct, the authors emphasize the need to go beyond the borders of the family firm to identify its external antecedents and consequences. By integrating the finance and management perspectives and analysing the theoretical frameworks and methodologies used in these disciplines, the review highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to advance family business research and thus to consolidate it as a distinctive academic field.     

A Collaborative View of Knowledge in a Knowledge Society: An International Perspective

This paper focuses on key topics that rose to the fore at the `Getting the Story Right' Joint Forum Assembly Meeting between business and higher education leaders of Australia, Canada, Japan, Poland, and the United States which was held in October 1998 in Banff, Canada. Arising from participant observation notes, conversations, document analysis, and reflective writing, the work centers on four major themes: the nature of knowledge and knowledge workers, the fundamental difference between training and learning, the short-term effects of shifting workplace and economic situations, and the long-term impact of intergenerational influences. Each of these knowledge-related themes emerged in collaborative discussions that transcended national, occupational, and cultural boundaries. The paper takes the position that dialogue regarding the nature and usefulness of knowledge paradoxically takes an inward view as it develops outwardly to the case of others and the world. In a collaborative process of this nature, an important dimension of shared human meaning making becomes briefly revealed.     

International Business and National Culture: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

This literature review analyzes leading international business and management journals from 2000 to 2012 in order to explore the role of national culture in international business research. Through the analysis of the 265 selected articles, the study thematically maps the field and identifies research challenges and opportunities. It reflects on avenues for future research related to both thematic and methodological issues, among them: research focused on the impact of the home/host national culture on internationalization processes (as existing literature mainly focuses on cultural distance); the role to be played by new theoretical frameworks; and the need to consider cultural positions and cultural friction rather than traditional cultural distance when analyzing internationalization decisions.     

组织学习模型简要评述——基于知识论视角

组织学习模型研究是当前的一个研究热点,国内外学者纷纷从不同的角度对此展开研究。分别从“系统”视角、“技术过程”视角、“学习类型”视角和“社会过程”视角对已有的比较有代表性的国内外组织学习模型展开简要的评述,肯定它们的优点,指出它们的不足,以期为将来的研究提供一些思路。     

Business groups' outward FDI: A managerial resources perspective

Outward FDI strategies are driven by firms' resource endowments, which in turn are conditioned by their home environment. In emerging economies, thus, the pattern of outward FDI is shaped by local firms' idiosyncratic contexts and the resources that these firms developed to fit the contexts. This includes business groups, a dominant organizational form in many emerging economies, competing with context-bound resources. When they wish to transcend their home context, they need internationally valuable resources, especially managerial resources, which may be quite different than the resources that enable domestic growth. This paper thus explores what resources drive this international growth in the case of Taiwanese business groups. Starting from Penrosian Theory, we focus on managerial resources that are shared across the member firms of a group, and thus shape the profile of the group. We find that international work experience favors internationalization while international education does not. Moreover, domestic institutional resources distract from internationalization, presumably because they are not transferable into other institutional contexts, and thus favor other types of growth.     

Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Multilevel Review,Synthesis and Research Agenda

Small‐business social responsibility (SBSR) related research is rapidly increasing in quantity, but is found in divergent literatures and disciplines. It is time to offer a comprehensive review that identifies, synthesizes and integrates previous research, and highlights the knowledge gaps and the way forward. This methodical search of the literature helped to identify 115 multidisciplinary peer‐reviewed academic articles appearing in high‐quality journals over the 1970–2016 period. Using a systematic and in‐depth content analysis technique, the authors reviewed the articles and identified the theories used, the national contextual focus and the methodological orientations in these articles. They also identified the predictors, outcomes, mediators and moderators of SBSR at the institutional, organizational and individual levels of analysis. This review helps to identify significant knowledge gaps in terms of the theoretical orientation, the national contextual focus, the core content under study, and the methods used. The authors offer numerous suggestions across these topics to help address the knowledge gaps and raise important questions for future research. The primary contributions of this paper are: delineating and summarizing a multilevel analysis of an emerging literature on SBSR; integrating contributions from a wide range of management disciplines and geographical contexts; extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field; and informing directions for future research. The authors propose a research agenda that is theoretically relevant and innovative, and call for context‐ and size‐aware research on SBSR, using small‐business‐specific methodologies and measurements.     

The Concept of Distance in International Business Research: A Review and Research Agenda

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of distance arising from country differences on outcomes at the firm and subsidiary level. It provides some clarity on what has been learned so far about distance by answering four questions: Which distance? Why does distance matter? What outcomes are affected by distance? and What aggravates or alleviates the effects of distance? Based on the review of the literature, a set of future research suggestions are developed, intended to direct attention to research questions that the authors believe are among the most pressing questions in distance research and that may have the potential to advance the field substantially.     

也从批判性和建设性的视角看“管理学在中国”——兼与韩巍商榷

中国管理学科建设是一个长期的过程,这需要很多学者从不同途径去努力,应该采取一种包容、鼓励的态度,同时开展对话.对话应该有一个前提,不能因反对而反对,要心平气和地对学术观点进行探讨,不断达成共识,逐步推进管理学在中国的发展.东方管理研究不仅是对民族文化的认同,更多的是受当代管理实践的推进,对现实问题的呼应.尽管需要进一步加大经验证据的收集和操作工具的细化,但东方管理毫无争议地不是意识形态.     

国际新创企业创业知识溢出及知识整合机制研究——基于天士力国际公司海外员工成长及企业国际化案例

国际新创企业的国际化发展是一个知识不断获取和积累的过程,外派员工知识的溢出和转移对国际企业知识存量的增加具有重要作用。本文以国际新创企业的知识整合为主线,从创业者的视角,探讨基于创业知识溢出的国际新创企业知识整合机制的理论框架。研究发现:第一,国际新创企业的国际化发展阶段与国际化知识存量共同演化。在海外市场拓展的过程中,外派人员扮演着创业者的角色,其创业知识的高知识位势是促使知识溢出的重要前提。第二,从组织和创业者两个层面来探讨了国际化知识整合的机制。在创业者层面,在无经验知识阶段是通过跨文化创业进行知识转移,短期经验知识阶段通过创业模仿和跨文化创业进行知识转移,而在国际化知识阶段则是通过自主创业和跨文化创业进行知识转移;在组织层面,针对创业者在不同阶段的行为和知识的变化,企业的角色从支持者慢慢向协调者和治理者演化。     

Knowledge and Identity: A Review

This paper reviews the literature in a number of areas that converge upon the theme of the role of knowledge within professional identity. Within knowledge transfer literature the individual perspective is underdeveloped, and this paper seeks to contribute by exploring the function of knowledge within an individual's professional identity, thus unfolding a theoretical connection between the literatures of knowledge and identity. Its central argument concurs with Szulanski's notion of ‘internal stickiness’ as a barrier to knowledge transfer but extends this hypothesis into the psychological ownership of knowledge and to the idea of ‘possessiveness’. The paper argues that the value of self‐categorized knowledge places the latter within the individual's cognitive structure of their identity. It offers up the idea of valued knowledge to the knowledge transfer domain and suggests that feelings of possessiveness towards knowledge may intervene in the willingness of an individual to disclose knowledge in a knowledge transfer process.     

互联网知识付费平台商业模式的构建路径——赋能视角的案例研究

中国互联网知识付费行业发展迅速,文章研究运用纵向单案例研究方法,探讨了知识付费行业内企业如何通过商业模式创新构建知识付费平台商业模式。研究发现赋能是企业商业模式创新的主要动力,通过心理赋能、领导赋能和顾客赋能促进关键活动创新,从而形成平台型价值网络。研究揭示了企业从自媒体商业模式到知识付费平台商业模式的创新过程,为知识付费行业内企业转型升级提供了重要启示。     

Risk of Antibiotic-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Dispersion from Hog Farms: A Critical Review

The World Health Organization has declared antibiotic resistance “one of the biggest threats to global health.” Mounting evidence suggests that antibiotic use in industrial-scale hog farming is contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. To capture available evidence on these risks, we searched peer-reviewed studies published before June 2017 and conducted a meta-analysis of these studies’ estimates of the prevalence of swine-associated, antibiotic-resistant S. aureus in animals, humans, and the environment. The 166 relevant studies revealed consistent evidence of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in hog herds (55.3%) raised with antibiotics. MRSA prevalence was also substantial in slaughterhouse pigs (30.4%), industrial hog operation workers (24.4%), and veterinarians (16.8%). The prevalence of swine-associated, multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA)—with resistance to three or more antibiotics—is not as well documented. Nonetheless, sufficient studies were available to estimate MDRSA pooled prevalence in conventional hog operation workers (15.0%), workers’ household members (13.0%), and community members (5.37%). Evidence also suggests that antibiotic-resistant S. aureus can be present in air, soil, water, and household surface samples gathered in or near high-intensity hog operations. An important caveat is that prevalence estimates for humans reflect colonization, not active infection, and the health risks of colonization remain poorly understood. In addition, these pooled results may not represent risks in specific locations, due to wide geographic variation. Nonetheless, these results underscore the need for additional preventive action to stem the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens from livestock operations and a streamlined reporting system to track this risk.     

Religious Business Ethics as Interpretation: A Jewish Perspective

This paper examines the method of Jewish business ethics. MichaelWalzer, in his work, Interpretation and Social Criticism (1987), suggeststhree common and important approaches to moral philosophy. He labels thesethe path of discovery, the path of invention, and the path ofinterpretation. The first part of this paper argues that Jewish businessethics is best thought of in terms of interpretation. Without question, thereligious ethicist immediately recognizes Walzers metaphor of the moralworld as a home occupied by a single family over many generations... as his own. Ethical arguments from a Jewish perspective must of necessityhave a lived-in quality and always make reference to and are based on thememory-laden objects and artifacts. The second part of the paper exploressome of the implications of Jewish business ethics as interpretation.     

Routines in International Business: A semi-systematic review of the concept

Routines are a crucial element in different streams of International Business (IB) research. This semi-systematic review examines articles published in top-ranked IB journals to analyze how the concept routines is used, in order to provide orientations for future research in the field. A systematic search process in three databases, followed by inductive text analysis and a cluster analysis, identifies three distinct research streams on routines in International Business: Global strategy, international organizational learning, and internationalization processes. A comprehensive analysis of the use of the concept in IB is presented by documenting qualities, types, dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of routines in the extant research. We integrate the fragmented and often implicit aspects ascribed to routines in IB research, so that future research can draw upon a defragmented, synthesized, and clarified concept. Opportunities for future contributions are highlighted in five broad areas: hierarchy and order in the MNE; agents, context, and time; distributing routines; distributed routines; and the non-routine.     

基于时际范围经济的企业国际市场进入过程模型:知识观视角的研究

本文从知识观的视角分析了企业国际化扩张过程中的市场进入问题,并基于时际范围经济的原理提出了一个过程模型。根据过程模型,企业在国际市场进入过程中必须考虑以下几个方面的问题:第一,企业应当采取序贯进入国际市场的策略,以更加有效地追求和实现时际范围经济;第二,由于时间压缩不经济的存在,企业必须审慎考虑国际市场进入的跨度和节奏;第三,类似于企业对核心业务的专注,企业应当审慎考虑国际化扩张的市场范围,或者更明确地说,企业应当序贯进入具有前期知识积累的目标市场;第四,企业在制定和实施国际化扩张战略时,初始目标市场的选择显得尤其重要,需要根据企业所在产业的市场结构、企业的竞争地位和战略目标等因素综合权衡。     

集群网络、知识溢出和企业家精神-基于美国高科技产业集群的证据

高科技产业集群内蕴含着丰富的创业机会,而集群网络的结构特征是否对集群层面的企业家精神发挥水平具有影响?为回答这个问题,本文利用1998-2005年美国信息技术、通信设备制造和生物医药三大高科技产业集群的数据,对高科技产业集群的网络结构特征与集群企业家精神发展水平的相关性进行了实证研究.研究结果表明,集群网络的集聚系数对新企业创立具有正向影响;集群网络的平均路径距离与企业家创业呈负相关关系.     

Knowledge Spillovers and Wage Inequality: An Empirical Analysis of Dutch Manufacturing

The introduction of new technologies and technical change is associated mainly with high‐skilled and high‐wage workers. In addition, many studies have found a positive correlation between the introduction of new technologies and technical change and skill upgrading. In these studies no attention has been paid to spillovers from one sector to the other. In this paper we not only use measures of technical change but also knowledge spillovers to explain wage inequality in Dutch manufacturing in the period 1986–95. Using this more elaborate measure of technical change, our findings are twofold. First, we confirm that workers employed in knowledge‐intensive manufacturing sectors receive a higher wage than workers in less knowledge‐intensive sectors. Secondly, the wages paid to high‐skilled workers relative to low‐skilled workers in knowledge‐intensive sectors are higher than those in less knowledge‐intensive sectors. However, the coefficients using the elaborate measure of technological advancement are much lower and sometimes even insignificant. This suggests a premium for high‐skilled labour in sectors both applying and developing technology. But the wage premium is highest in technology‐developing sectors, as suggested by the measures used in previous studies.