Testing Enterprising Tendency In Occupational Groups

The administration of a test of enterprising tendency showed that business owner-managers were significantly more enterprising than other occupational groups, namely teachers, nurses, civil servants, clerical trainees and lecturers and trainers. This test, which aims to measure key characteristics of enterprising people, is described within this paper. Key enterprise characteristics may include a high need for achievement, a high need for autonomy, calculated risk-taking, an internal locus of control and a creative tendency. The result of this pilot study may suggest that the occupation of setting up and managing a business requires an enterprising tendency, unlike other occupations. However, it could reflect the fact that business owner-managers are the most studied sample of enterprising people and that the test is drawn from this literature. However, further studies are required to clarify distinctions within occupational groups and to determine if business owner-managers are more enterprising than other occupational groups. It would be especially interesting to compare the enterprising tendency of business owner-managers with managers and enterprising people from other occupational groups.     

企业主集权:边界理论的新观点

与企业主关系亲近会让经理人获得更多授权吗?本文借助边界理论的分析框架提出了一种新的理论逻辑,强调家族涉入管理会影响企业主边界行为策略,进而影响控制权配置行为。基于双样本和两重测量的实证研究发现,家族涉入管理与企业主集权程度正相关,而目前学界普遍认同的企业主与经理关系亲近就会向后者更多授权的命题,仅在家族不涉入管理的情况下成立,在家族涉入管理的情况下并不成立。上述研究结果表明,家族涉入管理容易诱导企业主将家长身份与企业家身份一体化,把职业经理也纳入家长式集权管理之下,即使他们与企业主之间建立起泛家族化的亲近关系,也不易获得企业主的更多授权。     

Founding family effects on business group growth: Longitudinal evidence from Turkey (1925–2012)

Drawing from the family business perspective, this study provides insights into how the heterogeneity arising from founding family structures explains why particular business groups grow extensively, while others faced with similar external market conditions do not, and how the effects of founding family structure change over time. We test our hypotheses by using a unique, hand-collected, and extensive panel dataset which contains information of the full demographic history of founding families and all public and private companies founded/acquired or divested over the 1925–2012 period for 51 business groups in Turkey. Consistent with our hypotheses, our findings show that family size is a major positive determinant of the number of affiliated firms and the group scope. This effect is more strongly driven by sons compared to daughters. Business groups also grow more extensively when the first-born child is male. These family effects are stronger in the early developmental period of the business groups.     

中国企业集团概念的演化：背离与回归

通过回顾中国企业集团的发展过程,了解企业集团概念在中国的变化及影响,分析中国企业集团发展面临的问题与挑战,指出现在应该恢复“企业集团”的原本含义,即明确企业集团作为一种法人联合体而不是法人这样一个根本特征,在此基础上不仅各种相关的分歧可以得到统一,更重要的是由此带来的各种问题可以得到防止或者解决。     

The measurement of emotional reactions to work: Conceptual, methodological and research issues

This paper offers an overview of the literature on the measurement of emotional reactions to work. The paper opens with discussion of the meaning, definition and assessment of the terms 'work', 'emotion', and 'health/well-being' and then proposes that an understanding of the complex relationships among these variables should proceed through the use of ecological and interactional models. It is noted that, although there is still some controversy regarding the relationships between emotions, health and well-being, there is a growing recognition of the fact that emotions are closely related to the origins and exacerbation of disease and the promotion of health and well-being. Also, as an important context for human activity and development, the workplace can be both a direct and indirect source of negative emotions that are associated with severe stress, especially if certain workplace characteristics (e.g. quantitative and qualitative overload, poor control, low wages and poor social supports) are present. The paper summarizes some of the critical issues in the measurement of emotional reactions to work, including gender, age and culture, and lists some of the many instruments for this measurement. Lastly, the paper argues that the measurement of emotional reactions to work should proceed from a multimethod-multisource-multiemotion research strategy that samples different methods (questionnaires, behavioural observation, biological measures, etc.), emotions (anger, anxiety, happiness, etc), and sources (e.g. subject, professional, family).     

Business Legitimacy among Business Students in the United States, Great Britain, and South Africa

This study compares attitudes toward business legitimacy in three countries. Positive attitudes toward business legitimacy exist when there is a congruence between organizational activities and societal expectations. Businesses are concerned about the extent to which negative attitudes toward business legitimacy will lead to increased government regulation. The results suggest that business students in all three countries are similar in their attitudes toward business legitimacy; however, blacks have more negative attitudes toward business legitimacy than do whites. This study resulted in the validation of a scale that can be used to measure attitudes toward business legitimacy on a cross-cultural basis. Business legitimacy is a major concern in South Africa as the predominately white business community seeks to give the emerging black majority a stake in the existing economic system. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Strategies for start-ups

The article contains an empirical analysis of the strategy processes followed by new small firms to achieve speedy growth and success. It draws upon new evidence gathered by face-to-face semi-structured interviews with owner-managers of small firms. These interviews followed an agenda which investigated firm strategies in terms of environmental scanning, strategy implementation and evaluation and control. The article refers to 17 case studies of firms, constructed using this framework. Cluster analysis was used to split firms into groups of high, medium and low performers, using measures of growth, profitability and productivity. This primarily qualitative analysis is augmented by longitudinal quantitative evidence from the 150 firms from which the sub-sample of cases was selected. So the qualitative work is supported by statistical inferences from the larger dataset. This new empirical evidence supports the main hypothesis that even very young firms, who proactively use formal strategic planning, will tend to perform better than those who follow a more ‘visionary’ or reactive approach to running the business.     

A Review of Theory in Family Business Research: The Implications for Corporate Governance

In recent years, increasing scholarly attention has been directed toward the field of family business research. Based on an exhaustive sample of 235 publications, this article provides a comprehensive review and a critical assessment of the theoretical underpinnings and corporate governance issues in family business research. Three predominant theoretical perspectives, namely principal–agent theory, stewardship theory and the resource‐based view of the firm, have emerged and provide empirical evidence that family businesses significantly differ from non‐family firms in important dimensions such as agency costs, competitive advantages or corporate governance structure. On their own, none of the aforementioned perspectives succeeds in addressing all complexities associated with family businesses and their corporate governance. Accordingly, joint approaches combining different theoretical frameworks can help to improve understanding of the family business. The article concludes by discussing possible directions for future research that might further contribute to building a comprehensive theory of the family business and its corporate governance.     

Ownership Strategy and Foreign Affiliate Performance in Multinational Family Business Groups: A Double-edged Sword

We argue that ownership strategies can be a double edged sword for multinational family business groups from emerging economies and the performance of their affiliates located abroad. We test an integrated framework based on internalization and agency theory on a longitudinal dataset of multinational family business groups from Taiwan. We find evidence for the contingent impact of cultural differences and family management on the association between ownership strategy and affiliate performance. While direct ownership is seen as offering more control over the affiliate, we show that this comes at a performance cost for affiliates in culturally different host countries and affiliates under family management. Indirect ownership seems to be one way to positively influence affiliate performance in culturally distant countries, but seems not to be contingent on family management utilization.     

Tweaking the entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship in family firms: the effect of control mechanisms and family-related goals

Management literature is currently giving growing conceptual and empirical attention to the peculiarity and relevance of entrepreneurial attitudes in family firms, with divergent outcomes. Aiming at concretizing the effects of these attitudes, denoted by the entrepreneurial orientation construct, on family business performance and considering that family dynamics come into play in this relationship, we particularly investigate the impact of control mechanisms and family-related goals. Findings are based on a sample of 180 family firms and show that Proactiveness and Autonomy are particularly relevant to financial performance. Agency-problems avoiding control mechanisms moderate the effect of Innovativeness and Autonomy, while socioemotional wealth (SEW) goals moderate the effect of Risk-Taking, respectively. The usage of these mechanisms and managing SEW goals provide opportunities for a more efficient exploitation of entrepreneurial attitudes.     

Exposure to occupational violence and the buffering effects of intra-oranizational support

This paper presents a conceptually distinct analysis of the data first reported by Leather et al. Specifically, it investigates the effects of exposure to a variety of forms of work-related violence upon work attitudes and general well-being within a sample of UK public house licensees—individuals who manage public houses and hold the licence permitting the sale of alcoholic drinks on the premises. In addition, it examines the role of social support in moderating such effects. Based upon a sample of 242 licensees, it reports a consistent interaction between exposure to such violence and the availability of perceived intra-organizational support in determining the size of any negative effects upon individual well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It is argued that exposure to all forms of work-related violence, including intimidation, verbal abuse and threat, should be seen as a potential stressor within the work environment, the negative effects of which are buffered by perceived support from within the organization, but not by that perceived to be available from informal sources such as family and friends.     

Market segmentation: an integrated framework

Contrary to the narrow, demand-oriented approach to market segmentation taken in much of the marketing and planning literature, this article illustrates a broader, integrated framework which includes both the demand and supply sides of the competitive equation. The author argues that starting with ‘product’ characteristics is both an easier and more actionable way of segmenting markets than the traditional marketing approach that typically begins with the customer or ‘people’ characteristics. This approach can be employed by a business to make decisions about entering a market segment, differentiating a brand from its competition, positioning it in the market and communicating its quality to the customers. Customers, too, generally rely on product characteristics to perceive and evaluate the quality claims made by different competitors. Thus, the article bridges an important gap between strategy formulation and strategy implementation: an area often neglected in the strategy literature. The proposed approach focuses not only on customer benefits or needs, but also on the resources necessary to satisfy them and demonstrates this with examples from Apple, Church & Dwight and many other companies. To show a practical application, the article presents a price-quality-benefit segmentation profile of the US toothpaste market which revealed three strategic groups.     

Modelling safety climate in the prediction of levels of safety activity

This study examined the architecture of the relationships between components of organizational safety climate, including employee attitudes to safety issues and perceptions of the work environment, and related this to self-reported levels of safety activity. Data were collected from a large multinational manufacturing organization by questionnaire. A total of 915 valid questionnaires were returned and formed the basis for structural equation modelling and subsequent analyses. These data showed that a common structure, or architecture, of attitudes to safety issues and perceptions of the work environment could be constructed that explained levels of safety activity. The strength of employees' attitudes with regard to safety management played a pivotal role in this model through both direct and indirect paths. This is consistent with earlier findings on the importance of management commitment in organizations with well developed safety cultures. An examination of the differences between plants/sites showed that employees differed in their attitudes to safety issues, such as the management of safety and communication, and in their perceptions of workplace hazards. It is intended that this model be further utilized within the organization under study as a basis for monitoring safety performance and planned improvements in safety.     

中国企业管理人员对创业的态度

本文调查了三组中国企业管理人员的态度。内容涉及他们对创业的兴趣以及他们对于创业成功机会的预期,并试图通过此类调查找到一些普遍性。这些将对企业家领域的政策制定者有所帮助。     

Shareholders and managers: Who care more about corporate diversity and employee benefits?

We test two competing theories that explain a firm’s engagement in corporate diversity and employee benefits: socially responsible investment theory and management overinvestment theory. We find that publicly-traded companies with strong shareholder rights are more likely to promote women and/or minorities to the positions of CEO and board of directors in their organizations, conduct business with women- and/or minority-owned operations, and provide better family benefits to their employees than firms with strong management power. These findings indicate that the companies with strong shareholder rights engage more actively in internal aspects of CSR activities, which supports the socially responsible investment theory rather than the management overinvestment theory. Shareholders (i.e. institutional investors) tend to integrate their social goals (i.e. internal CSR issues) and financial goals into their investments. In response to these changes, managers should engage in the internal aspects of corporate social issues more aggressively as the agents of shareholders.     

从家族企业到企业家族:基于分家的多案例研究

分家经常会导致家族企业被分拆或败落,这使得人们对其存在一定成见,认为分家对于家族企业发展总是负面的。对我国几个具有典型意义的家族企业分家案例的分析表明,家族企业"分家"并不必然导致企业衰亡,尤其在战略创业导向之下,可能通过分家相互构建起战略性的产业联系和竞争合作关系,从而使得家族企业演变成企业家族。从裂变创业视角,更有助于揭示分家对家族企业创业和持续成长的正面价值。     

Other Aspects of BSE Issues in East Asian Countries

Scientific risk estimates of BSE can be the same internationally; however, socioeconomic backgrounds, such as food supply (e.g., beef import status) and dietary life, are different between East Asian countries (i.e., in this article, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) and Western countries, which may account for differences in risk perception of people. Since political and social backgrounds also differ among these East Asian countries, they will also influence people's attitudes toward food safety. Psychological factors such as “dread” and the “unknown” are considered to be important in risk perception, but socioeconomic, and in some cases political, situations (e.g., attitudes of politicians and political pressures in trade) may strongly influence the perception and acceptance of various risks by citizens. With regard to the BSE issues, latter aspects may contribute a lot to risk perception, but have not been examined in depth until now. Although protection of health is the key element to food safety, sometimes business factors can overwhelm safety issues in international trade. Appropriate risk governance in food safety issues, such as BSE, can be attained not only through application of outputs of scientific assessment, but also through deliberation of various aspects, that may have strong influence on people's risk perception, and improved communication among stakeholders and also among countries.     

Contingencies versus External Pressure: Professionalization in Boards of Firms Affiliated to Family Business Groups in Late‐Industrializing Countries

We examine the antecedents of professionalization in boards of firms affiliated to family business groups, increasingly recognized in the literature as the dominant form of big business organization in many late‐industrializing countries. Dimensions of board professionalization that we include in our study are board size, ratio of salaried executives and outsider presence. We compare predictions on board composition derived from contingency, institutional and power perspectives. Turkish family business groups, considered as an archetypal example of this form of organization, provide the empirical setting for the study, with data on 299 firms affiliated to ten different family business groups. Our results provide greater support for institutional and power perspectives, showing that, relative to internal and external complexity facing affiliate firms, institutional pressures and the presence of joint venture partners better predict board professionalization.     

Inter-Organizational Learning and Strategic Renewal in SMEs: Extending the 4I Framework

This article explores how mature SMEs which lack internal resources access external knowledge to facilitate strategic renewal. Organizational learning, in contrast to entrepreneurial learning, recognizes that owner-managers must distribute knowledge throughout the firm to achieve competitive benefits. Three case studies demonstrate how external ‘knowledge providers’ (customers, suppliers and educational institutions) help institutionalize ‘new’ knowledge. Initially, learning from inter-organizational relationships requires owner-managers to be proactive in accessing and extending appropriate inter-organizational relationships. Second, external organizations can play an active role by ‘intertwining’ knowledge to support the development of processes, systems and routines that distribute and institutionalize learning throughout the organization. The three cases have practical implications for owner-managers and add to academic knowledge via the extension of Crossan et al's 4I model of organizational learning.     

AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED DECISION ANALYSIS*

Decision analysis tools often are used in semistructured and ill-structured situations. While some researchers have argued that computerized decision analysis programs may improve decision quality in such situations, research support for this assertion is weak. In this laboratory study, business students used a computerized decision-analysis program with short strategic-management cases to prepare decision reports. Independent raters' perceptions of aided and unaided decision performance were contrasted, attitudes of students toward the program were assessed, individual differences were correlated with attitudes, and the program's impact on students' perceptions of their decision processes and performance was examined. Student attitudes toward the computerized aid were favorable, and individual differences in reactions generally were as predicted. However, the program did not improve the independent ratings of students' decision reports and recommendations. These findings suggest that computerized decision aids should be adopted cautiously. If such aids result in positive user affect and heightened decision confidence without corresponding improvements in decision quality, they may be dysfunctional. Rigorous research methodologies which incorporate independent evaluations of analyses and decisions are recommended for use in future research on computerized decision-analysis programs.