How can family businesses survive disruptive industry changes? Insights from the traditional mail order industry

The present study investigates how family firms respond to disruptive industry changes. We aim to investigate which factors prevent or support family firms’ adoption of disruptive innovations in their industry and which mechanisms lead to more or less successful coping with disruptive change. Our analysis is based on 24 qualitative interviews with top executives and on secondary data from an industry in which disruptive innovations dramatically changed the way business was generated. The industry in question is the mail order industry, which, in its early days, disrupted the retail business. When the Internet and, with it, ecommerce started to disrupt the industry in the late 1990s, the industry was characterized by a high proportion of family firms and a low level of innovativeness. While incumbent firms had been very successful for decades, most of them were confronted with serious turbulence when new entrants started changing the face of the industry. Our findings show that different factors impact reactions to disruptive industry change in two different phases, namely, opportunity recognition and opportunity implementation. While some of the influencing factors are determined by industry factors, family influence may function for better or worse for incumbent firms. Specifically, we find that in firms with a family disruptor, a family member in a powerful position who drives the adoption of the new technology, hindrances can be overcome and firms tend to show more successful strategies when reacting to the disruptive industry change

Frameless-Finding and Refining A Sampling Frame for Surveying Recreational Fisheries: Lessons from Estimating Swedish Harvest of Western Baltic Cod

To achieve sustainable fisheries, advice to management should be based on reliable science and unbiased data. Attaining quality data (i.e. precise and unbiased) on recreational fishing can be challenging, particularly when prior knowledge of the sector is limited and a proper sample frame of recreational fishers or vessels does not exist. In this study, a registry of access points was constructed for the Swedish south–west coast and used as a spatial sample frame in determining both effort and catches of the private boat fishery. Sampling dates, times for sampling, and access points visited were selected using probabilistic methods, ensuring unbiased results. The final multi-stage sampling design involved multiple strata, clusters, and probability selection methods and enabled first-time estimation of Swedish recreational landings of western Baltic cod by private boats to be used in stock assessment. Concurrent data collection covering aspects such as boat counts at access points, provided additional information on e.g. activity patterns. That additional information opens possibilities to refine the design of the original survey and optimize the sampling effort towards different goals, such as other fished resources. In this paper, we reflect on the challenges that limitations in initial information poses to the design and deployment of a new recreational fisheries survey. We suggest ways, whereby indirect sampling frames can be developed from initially incomplete or limited information to access the fishers and their catch. Our experience shows that, despite initial frame and knowledge limitations, full probabilistic methods are worth considering in data limited scenarios and that the design-based point estimates and variances they provide on recreational fishing effort and catches are useful in guiding initial management and the next steps of survey improvement

The Role of Affect in the Selection of Nonfamily Top Management Team Members in Family Businesses.

Utilizing a qualitative research design based on 53 interviews with 19 Swiss family businesses, supplemented by 14 expert interviews, this study demonstrates that different family firm-specific elements of the process of selecting top management team (TMT) members alter affect infusion in family firms. These are the informal selection context, the involvement of informal advisors, and relationship-related evaluation criteria. The study moreover shows that the context-specific attitude (openness, defensiveness, readiness to delegate) of the family business decision-maker regulates affect infusion. Lastly, the study demonstrates that sabotage in the selection process can occur in high-affect infusion scenarios. Contributions and implications for future research are discussed

Environmental controls on ozone fluxes in a poplar plantation in Western Europe

Tropospheric O-3 is a strong oxidant that may affect vegetation and human health. Here we report on the O-3 fluxes from a poplar plantation in Belgium during one year. Surprisingly, the winter and autumn O-3 fluxes were of similar magnitude to ones observed during most of the peak vegetation development. Largest O-3 uptakes were recorded at the beginning of the growing season in correspondence to a minimum stomatal uptake. Wind speed was the most important control and explained 44% of the variability in the nighttime O-3 fluxes, suggesting that turbulent mixing and the mechanical destruction of O-3 played a substantial role in the O-3 fluxes. The stomatal O-3 uptake accounted for a seasonal average of 59% of the total O-3 uptake. Multiple regression and partial correlation analyses showed that net ecosystem exchange was not affected by the stomatal O-3 uptake. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Broadband III-V on silicon hybrid superluminescent LEDs by quantum well intermixing and multiple die bonding

Combining quantum well intermixing and multiple die bonding a broadband superluminescent III-V on silicon LED was realized. Balancing four LEDs with different band gaps resulted in 292nm 3dB bandwidth and an on-chip power of -8dBm

A waveguide coupled LED on SOI by heterogeneous integration of InP-based membranes

A novel design geometry for an optically pumped LED by integrating thin III-V membranes on SOI is proposed. Simulation results predict power efficiency and fabrication tolerance. We present a first proof-of-concept demonstration of the LED