Family Business/Entrepreneurial Studies: A Small Private Liberal Arts College Approach

The Center for Women’s Business Research reports that, “As of 2002, there are an estimated 10.1 million privately-held majority or 50% women-owned businesses in the U.S., accounting for 46% of all privately-held firms. These firms generate 2.3 trillion in sales and employ 18.2 million workers.” Further it states, “In North Carolina, women-owned firms approach 171,000, employment tops 307,000, and sales exceed 37.3 billion.” Given the impact of these statistics, the questions arises what, if anything, should a small, all-female, undergraduate, private liberal arts college do about developing and implementing a Family Business/Entrepreneurial (FB/E) studies program? This paper reviews issues: national, state and college to determine the direction for establishing a program at this school

Growing Pains

Among the numerous challenges to survival for small family enterprises is the issue of employee compensation. The focus of this case is how one small firm attempts to develop a compensation plan that is fair and equitable to both employees and the organization, specifically addressing annual increases for the revenue-generating employees

Raleigh-Cary: Best Metro For Women Entrepreneurs?

This paper is an account of an undergraduate student’s research attempt to verify best place claims for women starting a business. It includes obstacles and challenges faced in developing a strategy for completing the research work.  Willingness to change paths led to selecting and interviewing 22 women entrepreneurs and demonstrates how being flexible in decision-making can lead to successful outcomes.  Findings show consistency with important location factors identified by other studies and also indentified factors that were not found in supporting literature.  Conclusions provide explanations for the top criteria identified by the interviewees.&nbsp

Family Owned Business Fraud: The Silent Thief

The ACFE 2002 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse shows “The per-employee losses from fraud in the smallest businesses are 100 times the amount of their largest counterparts.” Further, major factors contributing to small business fraud include: inadequate employee prescreening; limited controls and too much trust. The focus of the paper is on issues raised by questions such as should family businesses be concerned about fraud and to what extent can control measures be adopted to help reduce losses caused by this condition?  It is an examination of a survey sent to 167 female business owners and their responses to questions about fraud

Diversity Management: A Preliminary Review Of Selected Non-Profit North Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities (NCICU)

While there may be wide-spread claims that diversity management exists in many organizations, there should be some means for verifying its existence.  The purpose of this preliminary research is to review campus–wide documents and structure of schools in the NCICU to determine its transparency

Governance: Role Of Boards In Women Owned Businesses

According to Astrachan, et al.  (2003), family businesses “generate no less than 64 percent of USA gross domestic product, and … employ a whopping 62 percent of the nation’s work force.” While the economic impact is evident, the state of governance may not be so apparent. In light of this information, two questions bearing examination are: (1) Is governance a critical issue for family owned businesses; (2) If so, how may these firms address these questions? Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh developed and administered a survey to collect data about family business boards. A companion study, with its focus on women business owners, was conducted by Meredith College researchers. This paper compares and reports the results

Entrepreneurship Womens Business

One outstanding impact in the twenty first century US economy is the phenomenally expanding role and importance of women entrepreneurs. The Center for Women’s Business Research reports “nearly 10.4 million firms are 50% or more owned by women, employing more than 12.8 million people, and generating $1.9 trillion in sales.” (2007) This growth is evidenced by the fact that majority women-owned firms grew at twice the rate of all firms between 1997 and 2006. (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2007) Since Meredith College has unique status as the largest all-female undergraduate liberal arts school in the Southeast, it is positioned to examine entrepreneurial efforts of women.  This preliminary research examines demographic information about Meredith College alumnae who are employed by family enterprises or own their businesses.  It also examines challenges faced by women in starting and sustaining a business

Diversity Management: Seeking Validation

Diversity management is widely valued in higher education today, but closer examination often reveals a lack of action to support the level of diversity that institutions claim to embrace in many of their strategic documents. This paper includes an assessment of diversity management within South Carolina’s technical colleges and an examination of survey results.  It is a companion study to a prior study of diversity in North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU).  The purpose of that research was to review campus-wide documents and structure of schools in the NCICU to determine diversity transparency (Bledsoe/Oatsvall)