Strategy for succession in family owned small businesses as a wicked problem to be tamed

Contemporary strategic-planning processes don’t help family businesses cope with some of the big problems they face. Owner managers admit that they are confronted with issues, such as those associated with succession and inter-generational transfer that cannot be resolved merely by gathering additional data, defining issues more clearly, or breaking them down into small problems. Preparing for succession is often put off or ignored, many planning techniques don’t generate fresh ideas and implementing solutions is often fraught with political peril. This paper presents a framework to explore the idea of wicked problems, its relevance to succession planning in family businesses and its implications for practice and policy. A wicked problem has many and varied elements, and is complex as well as challenging. These problems are different to hard but ordinary problems, which people can solve in a finite time period by applying standard techniques. In this paper we argue that the wicked problem of family business succession requires a different approach to strategy, founded on social planning processes to engage multiple stakeholders and reconcile family/business interests to foster a joint commitment to possible ways of resolution. This requires academics and practitioners to re-frame traditional business strategic planning processes to achieve more sustainable family business futures

Using simulation to develop business strategy skills of entrepreneurs - Some reflections on a pilot

It is recognized that the value of entrepreneurship education and the recruitment of practising entrepreneurs for such learning programmes can be problematic. This raises an important and challenging issue for universities when they are increasingly being asked to develop the leadership and management capabilities of entrepreneurs. In this account of practice, the authors explore the role for business simulation in the development of existing entrepreneurs’ and small business leaders’ strategic decision-making skills. The article describes and reflects on a pilot business simulation course, considering the challenges in the planning, the engagement of entrepreneurs and the delivery of the programme. It provides insights into the value of introducing this form of learning experience and exposes the significant challenges associated with engaging small business leaders

Degree apprenticeships: Reflecting on university–employer partnership practice to improve workforce development in the United Kingdom

This article offers an early assessment of the extent and scope of participation by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Degree Apprenticeship (DA) provision for meeting the broader workforce development objectives of the UK Government. While the take-up of DAs by HEIs and businesses has been undeniably lower than the publicly declared Government targets, the issues seem to be related to matters of institutional ‘stickiness’ in HEIs and implementation practicalities for businesses. The article reflects on the institutional dynamics involved in HEIs’ collective shifting of their practice in response to Government intervention to associate funding with HE–business collaboration. The authors’ observations are drawn from the experience of one HEI; they adopt an auto-ethnographic perspective to reflect on the role of the DA model as one way of stimulating how HEIs can work with businesses to co-design workforce development initiatives and offer ideas for future development

Developing SME performance management practices: interventions for improving productivity

Purpose The paper is a proof of concept (PoC) intervention study aimed for developing performance management (PM) practices in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the longer-term aim enabling the SMEs to improve their productivity. The intervention was designed and deployed by a collaborative quartet of academics, management consultants, accountancy firm and a commercial bank manager. Design/methodology/approach The paper firstly musters a set of initialising PM practices aligned to productivity improvement. These are utilised to design a knowledge transfer intervention for deployment with a set of manufacturing SMEs incorporating some associated productivity tools. The evaluation of the intervention utilised a case study approach founded on a logic model of the intervention to assess the development of the PM practices. Findings The intervention contributed to a partial development of the mustered practices and the productivity diagnostic based on the multi-factor productivity (MFP) abstraction and a data extraction protocol had the strongest impact. The study revealed the importance of the three interlaced factors: Depth of engagement, feedback opportunities and the intervention gradient (the increase of independent action from the participating SME's and the diminishment of the external intervention effort). Research limitations/implications The case study is based on a limited number of individual SME's, and within just the manufacturing sector. Practical implications SME businesses will require a more sustained programme of interventions than this pilot to develop PM capability, and depth of engagement within the SME is critical. Professional stakeholders can be utilised in recruitment of firms for intervention programmes. Business can start developing PM capability prior to PMS implementation using the tools from this programme. Originality/value The productivity diagnostic tool, based on a synthesis of MFP and the performance pyramid, an array of potential initialising practices for PM capability and discovery of potential mechanisms for PM practice development

Distinguishing micro-businesses from SMEs: a systematic review of growth constraints

Purpose – Micro-businesses account for a large majority of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). However, they remain comparatively under-researched. This paper seeks to take stock of the extant literature on growth challenges, and to distinguish the growth constraints facing micro-business as a specific subset of SMEs from those facing larger SMEs. Design/methodology/approach – The study consists of a systematic review of 59 peer-reviewed articles on SME growth. Findings – Micro-businesses distinguish themselves from larger SMEs by being owner-manager entrepreneur (OME) centric and are constrained by a tendency to be growth-averse, underdeveloped capabilities in key business areas, underdeveloped OME capabilities, and often inadequate business support provision. Research limitations/implications – The use of keywords, search strings, and specific databases may have limited the number of papers identified as relevant by the review. However, the findings are valuable for understanding micro-businesses as a subset of SMEs, providing directions for future research and generating implications for policy to support the scaling up of micro-businesses. Originality/value – The review provides a renewed foundation for academic analysis of micro-business growth, highlighting how micro-businesses are distinct from larger SMEs. At present, no systematic literature review on this topic has previously been published and the study develops a number of theoretical and policy implications