Positioning, Articulating, and Crafting Conceptual Articles on Entrepreneurship

Conceptual Articles Are Important for Theory Building but the Special Challenges of Developing Conceptual Articles on Entrepreneurship Has Not Been Fully Considered. We Begin to Fill This Gap by Discussing the Nature of Conceptual Articles on Entrepreneurship, Particularly Those Geared for Publication in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. We Introduce Three Dimensions of the Entrepreneurship Discipline—uniqueness, Relevance, and Multiplicity—and Discuss How They Can Affect the Positioning of Conceptual Articles and the Articulation of their Contribution. We Also Enumerate Some Basic Principles for Crafting Good Conceptual Articles and Present Guidelines based on Our Discussion

A note on family influence and the adoption of discontinuous technologies in family firms

The 4Cs model of command, continuity, community, and connections is useful for examining the effect of family influence on the adoption of discontinuous technologies. However, assuming that family influence differs only in degree rather than kind is naive because such an assumption ignores the likelihood of heterogeneous behaviors among family firms. In this conceptual note, we extend prior work and explain how heterogeneity in the family’s relative emphasis on command, continuity, community, and connections requires that the multifaceted and potentially nonlinear nature of family influence be considered when analyzing strategic decisions concerning family firm innovation

Transaction Costs and Outsourcing Decisions in Small and Medium-Sized Family Firms

An important difference between family and nonfamily firms, and among different types of family firms, is in the way they make outsourcing decisions and thereby define the boundaries of the firm. The authors propose that transaction costs arising from human asset specificity, threats of opportunism, and risk aversion will make small-and medium-sized family firms operating with technologies of low to medium complexity less likely to outsource than comparable nonfamily firms. The authors also argue that the limiting influence of transaction costs on the outsourcing decisions of family firms may be mitigated by variations in available suppliers, goals, and ownership structures

The impact of small- and medium-sized family firms on economic growth

Drawing on family business studies and the knowledge-based view of economic growth, we develop and test a model of how the prevalence of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) under family control affect economic growth. Specifically, we propose there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between family SMEs’ proportional representation and economic growth owing to their relative strengths and limitations vis-à-vis non-family SMEs. Using state-level data from the U.S. between 2004 and 2010, we find support for our hypothesis and the underlying contention that economic growth is maximized when an economy includes a balanced mix of family and non-family SMEs

Reflections on family firm goals and the assessment of performance

Assessments of family firm effectiveness depend critically on how goals and performance outputs are measured. Similarly, assessments of family firm efficiency depend critically on how performance outputs and resource inputs are measured. We illustrate this by showing that the assessment of performance is affected by how different family firm goal systems are specified. Gaining a better understanding of these fundamental concepts gives family business scholars the rare opportunity to set the rules of the game about how the performance of family firms, and other organizations that pursue the non-financial goals of a dominant stakeholder, should be assessed

The Adolescence of Family Firm Research: Taking Stock and Planning for the Future

Through its rapid growth during the past decade, family business research has reached its adolescence as a field of study, and family business scholars now regularly contribute interesting and thought-provoking work to top-tier management, entrepreneurship, and finance journals. In this review article, the authors seek to document the growing maturity of family business research and to promote its integration into broader streams of inquiry in the organizational sciences. To do so, the authors describe recent family business research that addresses two fundamental questions: “How do firms differ in terms of their financial performance?” and “How do institutional conditions moderate performance differences between firms?” Based on their review, the authors describe the past and potential future contributions of family business research and conclude that it holds great promise to “give back” and provide meaningful contributions to the general field of management

The influence of depth and velocity on age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon prey consumption: Implications for aquatic habitat restoration

After the pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) was listed as endangered in 1990, a variety of management actions focusing on early life history needs have been implemented to aid species recovery. Given the scarcity of age‐0 pallid sturgeon, managers and scientists have relied on sympatric congeners to evaluate the effectiveness of management actions in the short term; however, increased understanding of habitat requirements for age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon is still needed to appropriately focus management efforts. Recently, a lack of food‐producing and foraging habitats were proposed as potential limiting factors for pallid sturgeon, and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the current definition of these habitats at multiple spatial scales using data from age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon (shovelnose sturgeon [Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus] or hybrid [shovelnose sturgeon x pallid sturgeon]). Results showed the water depths and velocities that currently define age‐0 pallid sturgeon foraging habitat had little effect on age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon prey consumption. Similar results occurred when evaluating the relationship between prey consumption and food‐producing habitat present 10, 20, and 30 days before capture. Assuming that individuals captured during this study were a valid surrogate, these results suggest that increasing foraging and food‐producing habitat as defined by the current depth and velocity criteria is unlikely to result in the desired benefits of increased growth and survival of age‐0 pallid sturgeon

Management processes and strategy execution in family firms: from “what” to “how”

The distinctiveness of family firms’ goals, structures, resources, strategies, and performance has been studied in terms of what family firms do or are able to achieve that are different from those of nonfamily firms. This dominant approach to studying family firm behavior has contributed significantly to our understanding of such organizations. Currently, however, we know little about how family firm decisions are made and the processes by which family firms plan and execute. We develop a conceptual framework and set out an agenda for future research on how the distinctive/unique interaction between the business and the family influences the management processes by which family firms implement their strategies

Normative Alethic Pluralism

Some philosophers have argued that truth is a norm of judgement and have provided a variety of formulations of this general thesis. In this paper, I shall side with these philosophers and assume that truth is a norm of judgement. What I am primarily interested in here are two core questions concerning the judgement-truth norm: (i) what are the normative relationships between truth and judgement? And (ii) do these relationships vary or are they constant? I argue for a pluralist picture—what I call Normative Alethic Pluralism (NAP)—according to which (i) there is more than one correct judgement-truth norm and (ii) the normative relationships between truth and judgement vary in relation to the subject matter of the judgement. By means of a comparative analysis of disagreement in three areas of the evaluative domain—refined aesthetics, basic taste and morality—I show that there is an important variability in the normative significance of disagreement—I call this the variability conjecture. By presenting a variation of Lynch’s scope problem for alethic monism, I argue that a monistic approach to the normative function of truth is unable to vindicate the conjecture. I then argue that normative alethic pluralism provides us with a promising model to account for it