Ownership and Control in Closely‐held Family‐owned Firms: An Exploration of Strategic and Operational Control

Much of the existing research into the divorce of ownership and control either focuses on the propensity for the separation of decision functions or upon scrutinizing conceptions, gauges or the practicalities of organizational control in large corporations. Although far from equivocal, such research appears broadly to concur that where ownership is dispersed, de facto control is likely to be exerted by management and that where ownership is closely‐held, de facto as well as legal control is exerted by owners. This study examines this assumption through exploring the nature of control in a closely‐held family firm. In this regard, the focus of this study is not on consequences of divorced ownership and control but rather on exploring the contingencies where ownership and control diverge. This research reveals a case wherein a closely‐held family firm is strategically and operationally controlled by its managers. Case research leads to the development of a range of insights regarding the owner/family and the management characteristics that contribute to this scenario. The paper concludes with a series of implications and conclusions.     

Sticks and Stones: Evaluations of Responses to Childhood Teasing

The present study addresses children's assessments of responses to teasing. Participants viewed videotaped interactions in which one child was being teased by two other children and responds in one of three ways (i.e., with humor, by ignoring, or with hostility). Participants rated the humorous response to teasing as the most effective way to respond to teasing, followed by ignoring. The hostile response was rated the least effective. The target's response to teasing significantly affected perceptions of the friendliness and popularity of the teasers and target. In addition, participants' previous experiences with teasing, as both victim and teaser, significantly affected their perceptionsof the teasing interaction. Results are discussed as they relate to understanding childhood teasing and effective ways of responding to teasing.     

NETWORKS, INFORMATION TRANSFER, AND STATUS CONFERRAL: The Role of Social Capital in Income Stratification among Lawyers

The focus of this article is to examine how and to what extent social networks serve to alleviate information problems on both demand and supply sides of the market, and how this mechanism contributes to income inequality among legal service providers. The empirical context of this study is a random sample of urban lawyers in Chicago. The findings indicate that a lawyer benefits not only from having access to social capital that provides timely and novel information related to solving work-related tasks, but also from the endorsement by high-status network partners. In addition, empirical analyses reveal that the returns on ties to high-status others, net of control, and other social capital variables vary according to the level of client uncertainty in the market.     

Empowering Rural Sociology: Exploring and Linking Alternative Paradigms in Theory and Methodology1

Abstract Theoretical and methodological approaches to rural social change are explored, especially those that give visibility to the range of heterogeneous experiences and perspectives that often are overlooked or ignored. Theoretical developments in postmodern, narrative, and feminist theory are described as are the methodological approaches they imply. Examples of research on rural social change that attempt to integrate theory and methods in ways that respect the complicated, processual nature of social life are discussed. They provide concrete illustrations of how alternative approaches can be fruitfully applied to some of the issues and problems rural sociologists typically study.