Global institutions and local filtering: Introducing independent directors to Taiwanese corporate boards

Drawing on the idea of selective interaction between organizations and environments, the authors examine how organizations change their traditional practices when they are exposed to new institutional environments. In the context of corporate governance change in response to financial market globalization, they argue that global institutional influence is moderated by local corporate control contexts that function as filtering mechanisms. The authors empirically analyse the adoption of a new corporate governance practice, i.e., the initial introduction of independent directors, in Taiwanese public firms, where family governance has been a dominant governance model. The findings suggest that while firms exposed to US capital markets are more likely to adopt independent directors, this facilitating effect weakens when the firms are under strong family control and is amplified when they are unbound from local frameworks through the key leader???s education or their geographic context

Exploring the journey to services

Firms are increasingly providing services to complement their product offerings. The vast majority of studies on the service journey, also known as servitization or service transition, examine the challenges and enablers of the process of change through cases studies. Investigations that provide an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the steps involved in the service journey are much rarer. Such a detailed understanding is required in order to appreciate fully how firms can leverage the enablers while overcoming the challenges of servitization. This study investigates what does a service journey look like? It analyzes in some detail the actual service journeys undertaken by three firms in the well-being, engineering and learning sectors. The paper offers four contributions. First, in the change literature, there are two dominant theories: The punctuated equilibrium model and the continuous change model. This study demonstrates that servitization follows a continuous change rather than a punctuated equilibrium. It shows that such continuous change is neither logical nor structured but much more emergent and intuitive in nature. Second, the study provides empirical evidence to support a contingency view of the dominance and sequencing of the different process models of change across the change journey. Third, this research shows the pace of service development and when the coexistence of basic, intermediate and complex services occurs. Finally, it contributes to the literature in the service field by presenting three actual service journeys and the associated seven stages of the service strategy model that organizations should consider when managing their service journeys

Entrepreneurial Behavior as Learning Processes in a Transgenerational Entrepreneurial Family

Within the extant body of literature, little is known as to how transgenerational entrepreneurial families develop entrepreneurial mind-sets in order to create value across generations. Accordingly, this chapter aims to explore the role of the family ownership group in entrepreneurial behavior by examining the entrepreneurial learning process in a transgenerational entrepreneurial family. In achieving this aim, the 4I organizational learning framework by Crossan et al. (An organizational learning framework: From intuition to institution. Academy of Management Review 24 (3): 522-537, 1999) is adapted as a theoretical lens. The empirical evidence that draws upon evidence from a detailed longitudinal case study illustrates the interjectory influence of the family ownership group within this process, suggesting that entrepreneurial learning in a transgenerational family firm is embedded at the family group level and reproduced and co-created as a result of resilient entrepreneurial behavior

Defining family business: a closer look at definitional heterogeneity

Researchers have used a myriad of different definitions in seeking to explain the heterogeneity of family firms and their unique behavior; however, no widely-accepted definition exists today. Definitional clarity in any field is essential to provide (a) the basis for the analysis of performance both spatially and temporally and (b) the foundation upon which theories, frameworks and models are developed. We provide a comprehensive analysis of prior research and identify and classify 82 definitions of family business. We then review and evaluate five key theoretical perspectives in family business to identify how these have shaped and informed the definitions employed in the field and duly explain family firm heterogeneity. Finally, we provide a conceptual diagram to inform the choice of definition in different research settings

Advancing knowledge on human resource management in family firms: An introduction and integrative framework

Hoon C, Hack A, Kellermanns FW. Advancing knowledge on human resource management in family firms: An introduction and integrative framework. German Journal of Human Resource Management = Zeitschrift für Personalforschung . 2019;33(3):147-166.Over the last decades, human resource management has received increasing attention in family business scholarship. However, works on human resource management in the context of family firms remain relatively low as compared to the more general body of studies on human resource management. This article introduces our special issue of the German Journal of Human Resource Management, which discusses facets of how family firms configure human resource management and set human resource practices. We first give a brief overview on the conceptual and empirical research that relates to and informs human resource management within family firms, resulting in a human resource system framework. We then discuss ideas for future human resource management research, namely, the influence of the owning family on human resource orientation, non-family employees as human resource recipients and the role of human resource professionals in delivering human resource management. Furthermore, we call for making psychological foundations part of the human resource management scholarship agenda. There is still work to be done before human resource management can find its 'place in the sun' in the family business community. Hence, this special issue contributes to developing family business human resource management scholarship further by offering the human resource system framework, by suggesting directions for future research and by advancing our conceptual and empirical understanding of human resource management in the context of family firms