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

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

Successor selection in family business—A signaling game

Signaling theory has been widely used to explain phenomena in personnel selection processes. We investigate whether and how signaling occurs in family businesses’ intra-family CEO successor selection. We apply a multiple case study approach using data from twelve German family businesses. Our analysis affirms that hard-to-fake signals as well as costly signals are present in the intra-family CEO successor selection process. More interestingly, the specific context in family businesses influences the signaling game. Signaling occurs during a much longer timeframe compared to non-family businesses, signals are sent and perceived in the private (owner family) as well as in the family business context, and negative signals are utilized by family members to exclude themselves from the pool of potential successors. We derive several propositions that we integrate into a conceptual model and discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice in the family and the non-family business contexts

Successor selection in family Business — a signaling game

Signaling theory has been widely used to explain phenomena in personnel selection processes. We investigate whether and how signaling occurs in family businesses’ intra-family CEO successor selection. We apply a multiple case study approach using data from twelve German family businesses. Our analysis affirms that hard-to-fake signals as well as costly signals are present in the intra-family CEO successor selection process. More interestingly, the specific context in family businesses influences the signaling game. Signaling occurs during a much longer timeframe compared to non-family businesses, signals are sent and perceived in the private (owner family) as well as in the family business context, and negative signals are utilized by family members to exclude themselves from the pool of potential successors. We derive several propositions that we integrate into a conceptual model and discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice in the family and the non-family business contexts

Socioanalytic theory and work behavior : Roles of work values and political skill in job performance and promotability assessment

Socioanalytic theory postulates that job performance ratings are predicted by basic social motives moderated by social competency. The two motives are the motive to get along with others and the motive to achieve status and power. The present two-study investigation assessed these motives as work values and collected supervisors' job performance and promotability assessments. Social competency was assessed as political skill at work. The results provided strong and consistent support for the hypotheses, thus providing a more direct test of socioanalytic theory and extending it to demonstrate effects beyond overall job performance ratings on contextual performance and promotability assessments. Contributions and implications of these results, strengths and limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed

Are hospitalized or ambulatory patients with heart failure treated in accordance with European Society of Cardiology guidelines? Evidence from 12 440 patients of the ESC Heart Failure Long-Term Registry.

AIMS: To evaluate how recommendations of European guidelines regarding pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for heart failure (HF) are adopted in clinical practice. METHODS AND RESULTS: The ESC-HF Long-Term Registry is a prospective, observational study conducted in 211 Cardiology Centres of 21 European and Mediterranean countries, members of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). From May 2011 to April 2013, a total of 12 440 patients were enrolled, 40.5% with acute HF and 59.5% with chronic HF. Intravenous treatments for acute HF were heterogeneously administered, irrespective of guideline recommendations. In chronic HF, with reduced EF, renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers, beta-blockers, and mineralocorticoid antagonists (MRAs) were used in 92.2, 92.7, and 67.0% of patients, respectively. When reasons for non-adherence were considered, the real rate of undertreatment accounted for 3.2, 2.3, and 5.4% of the cases, respectively. About 30% of patients received the target dosage of these drugs, but a documented reason for not achieving the target dosage was reported in almost two-thirds of them. The more relevant reasons for non-implantation of a device, when clinically indicated, were related to doctor uncertainties on the indication, patient refusal, or logistical/cost issues. CONCLUSION: This pan-European registry shows that, while in patients with acute HF, a large heterogeneity of treatments exists, drug treatment of chronic HF can be considered largely adherent to recommendations of current guidelines, when the reasons for non-adherence are taken into account. Observations regarding the real possibility to adhere fully to current guidelines in daily clinical practice should be seriously considered when clinical practice guidelines have to be written

Mapping European Association of Urology Guideline Practice Across Europe: An Audit of Androgen Deprivation Therapy Use Before Prostate Cancer Surgery in 6598 Cases in 187 Hospitals Across 31 European Countries

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