Guiando al caballo hacia el agua: La formación de un sucesor infantil en la sucesión de la empresa familiar

This study critically investigates and evaluates the childhood and adolescent year strategies, and efforts that parent-owners of family businesses incorporate to encourage and prepare children for a successful future succession. The sample consisted of six family businesses in the North East of Scotland: two successfully introduced a second-generation, two a third generation and one a fourth generation, with one still in the founder stage. The findings reveal that the succession planning process was an instantaneous event into generational bridging, where no formal planning process was commenced. Parent-owners influenced and facilitated knowledge transfer and education, leaving control to the child successors with career options. The research has also shown the difficulties in how the child successors of the future may find succession challenging and demanding with contextually complex issues. Este estudio investiga y evalúa críticamente las estrategias y los esfuerzos que los padres propietarios de empresas familiares llevan a cabo para incentivar y preparar a sus hijos para una futura sucesión exitosa. La muestra consistió en seis empresas familiares en el noreste de Escocia: dos en segunda generación, dos en tercera generación, una en cuarta generación y una todavía en la etapa de fundador. Los hallazgos revelan que el proceso de planificación de la sucesión fue un evento instantáneo en el puente generacional, donde no se inició ningún proceso de planificación formal. Los padres-propietarios influyeron y facilitaron la transferencia de conocimientos y la educación, dejando el control a los hijos sucesores con opciones de carrera. La investigación también muestran las dificultades de cómo los futuros sucesores pueden encontrar la sucesión desafiante y exigente con problemas contextualmente complejos

The strategic role of middle managers in the formulation and implementation of digital transformation projects

Middle managers play a crucial role in implementing digital strategy. They directly influence the success or failure of an organization's digital transformation. They are the enablers of digital strategy implementation and company transformation and sometimes can cast a sabotaging shadow side when not involved and engaged in the process. However, there are ways to engage them and divert their sabotaging behavior

Nonfamily knowledge during family business succession: a cultural understanding.

Purpose: Knowledge transfer plays a key role in the succession process. While much attention has been given to the passing of business knowledge form incumbent to successor, less is known about the use of nonfamily knowledge during this most crucial of family business events. The purpose of this paper is to look how knowledge from nonfamily employees is treated at times of succession. Importantly, it considers how the controlling family's cultural background may influence nonfamily knowledge use, and subsequent implications for the succession process. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory comparative case study design is adopted in order to uncover the complex social and cultural dynamics around knowledge use. Four case studies are presented from family businesses of different, and contrasting, cultural origins. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations and formal secondary data from the organisations, all of whom operate in the UK. Findings: Findings reveal a complex picture, part influenced by the cultural dynamics of the family and part by business necessity. Specifically, power-distance appears as an informative cultural dimension, influencing how knowledge is used and nonfamily are perceived. While some family businesses privilege the knowledge from family, others see the need to build knowledge relationships more broadly. Originality/value: This paper provides further evidence to the heterogeneity of family businesses. It moves beyond a processual explanation of succession to develop a more contextually aware understanding of the dynamics and sensitivities involved

Technology Roadmapping Using Text Mining: A Foresight Study for the Retail Industry

Technology roadmapping is a widely accepted method for offering industry foresight as it supports strategic innovation management and identifies the potential application of emerging technologies. While roadmapping applications have been implemented across different technologies and industries, prior studies have not addressed the potential application of emerging technologies in the retail industry. Furthermore, few studies have examined service-oriented technologies by a roadmapping method. Methodologically, there are limited roadmapping studies that implement both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Hence, this article aims to offer a foresight for future technologies in the retailing industry using an integrated roadmapping method. To achieve this, we used a sequential method that consisted of both text mining and an expert review process. Our results show clear directions for the future of emerging technologies as the industry moves toward unmanned retail operations. We generate eight clusters of technologies and integrate them into a roadmapping model, illustrating their links to the market and business requirements. Our study has a number of implications and identifies potential bottlenecks between the integration of front- and back-end solutions for the future of unmanned retailing

Microfinance and micropreneurship in rural South-East Nigeria: an exploration of the effects of institutions.

Informed by the work of Alistair Anderson on entrepreneurship as embedded in institutional contexts, this paper explores the experiences of 30 women micropreneurs in rural South-East Nigeria. These women are amongst the poorest people in the world and live in an environment marginalized from formal institutions, where informal ones are prioritized, and where culture and tradition reflect patriarchal limitations on their activities and experiences. We find that while microfinance is often cited as one of the key mitigators of institutional voids and an important support for entrepreneuring in deprived contexts, in fact there are critical barriers to uptake and socio-cultural conditions are found to limit the extent to which women trust and engage with microfinance. To that end, new methodologies that might mitigate perceived risks, including deepening poverty, are called for. Implications for those who would support enterprise in poverty circumstances in developing nations include that to be effective they must engage with the socio-cultural institutions and lived realities amongst the people they seek to serve. Alongside this, further application and development of the approaches to studying entrepreneurship in marginalized environments that Alistair was such as central contributor to are advocated

Pentalogy of Fallot with a Single Coronary Artery: A Rare Case Report

Anomalies of origin, course, and distribution of coronary arteries, including single coronary artery, are well known in patients with Tetralogy of Fallot. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no published case report of Pentalogy of Fallot with a single coronary artery. Herein, we introduce a 22-year-old female patient diagnosed via echocardiography and cardiac catheterization preoperatively as Pentalogy of Fallot with a single coronary artery arising from the left coronary sinu

Potential of nano-emulsions as phytochemical delivery system for food preservation

Nature is a rich source of bioactive phytochemicals. These plant based compounds have rich scope as antioxidants, antimicrobial compounds and food preservatives and so for long time to be used in meat, fruits, vegetables and processed food items, either as added preservative or as coating material in various food applications, but the major limitation is their limited solubility in a food grade medium. Nano-emulsion is a best choice as a medium having vast area of application. The major advantage of nano-emulsion would be the solubility of a vast group of compounds, due to the presence of water and lipid phases. In this way, nano-emulsions can be proved to be the most suitable candidate as phytochemical delivery system for food preservation. In present article, the use of phytochemicals as potent food preservatives has been reviewed, in context of solubility of phytochemicals in nano-emulsion and applications of food grade nano-emulsions to food systems