Over 100 Years of Age But Still Entrepreneurially Active in Business: Exploring the Values and Family Characteristics of Old Finnish Family Firms

This article, based on an exploratory study of old Finnish family firms, examines two main research questions: “How do certain firms that have been involved in business for over one century perceive and rank their business values]” and “How do the members of the owner-families self-assess their family characteristics in these century-old family firms]” There are only 68 companies that belong to either the FBN-Finland Association (Perheyritysten liitto ry) or the Association of Finnish Entrepreneurs (Suomen yrittäjät ry) that are over 100 years of age. The data, based on self-assessments of the present active family executives working at the top level, were drawn from 10 FBN companies and 1…

Spread of franchising: a multinational comparison based on the notions of innovation diffusion

Investigates the globalization of franchising through a discussion of the literature on innovation diffusion. Proceeds then to evaluate the globalization of format franchising in 31 countries, drawing data from Arthur Andersen’s multi‐national study. Finds that the USA has the greatest number of franchisors and franchisees, Japan seems to have a different franchise structure when compared to the other countries studied, and Israel is a franchising novice. Presents a number of tables, accompanied by notes of caution on analysing the statistics. Mentions briefly some examples of franchises. Refers the findings back to the literature review to assess how well they match the theoretical descrip…

CEOs’ Joy of Working for the Family Firm: The Role of Psychological Ownership and Stewardship Behavior

Abstract In this article, we examine the factors which lead to CEOs’ joy of working for the family firm, as it is expected to contribute to their willingness to invest in its perpetuation and success. We focus on three such factors: CEOs’ collective psychological ownership, their individual psychological ownership, and CEOs’ stewardship behavior. We find that on the one hand, the relationship between CEOs’ collective psychological ownership and their joy of working for the family business is mediated by their stewardship behavior, and on the other hand, stewardship behavior mediates the relationship between CEOs’ individual psychological ownership and their joy of work. We make valuable con…

The practice-driven evolution of family business education

Abstract Starting from Calder's dissertation in the early fifties, key developments in family business education are presented in a 130-item chronology. The emergence of the field is tracked to the demand from practitioners rather than the pull of scholarly inquiry. Causal evolutionary drivers of variation, selective retention, and struggle for survival, provide a framework for understanding the past and current status of the knowledge base for family business and hinting at future development. The critical role of infrastructure – family business centers and professional associations – is evident in the path dependent evolution and growth of the field. Although the last two decades have wi…

The CEO autonomy–stewardship behavior relationship in family firms: The mediating role of psychological ownership

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between a family business CEO's autonomy and stewardship behavior. Building on psychological ownership theory, we argue that psychological ownership mediates the autonomy–stewardship relationship. In contrast to prior studies, we differentiate between individual-oriented and collective-oriented psychological ownership as two distinct dimensions of individual psychological ownership. Our results reveal that CEO autonomy is an important determinant of stewardship behavior and that this relationship is only mediated by individual-oriented psychological ownership. Moreover, both individual-oriented and collective-oriented psychological ownership…

Understanding the Contesting Ideologies of Family Business: Challenge for Leadership and Professional Services

This paper examines how a family business system serves as the ideological arena of three cultural forces—entrepreneurialism, managerialism, and paternalism—that are, to a great extent, contesting ideologies based on different rationalities, or schools of thought. Furthermore, it reinforces the view that a family business system is the combination of three interacting subsystems (management, ownership, and family life)—a form of business that is challenging both for leaders and professional service providers. The approach of the study is conceptual and cultural. It bases its theoretical background on the developments of Johannisson and Huse (2000) and Tagiuri and Davis (1996). A summary of…

Editor's note

Family´s Collective Motivation to Business Ownership : A Review of Alternative Theoretical Approaches

Intellectual Capital and Property Rights (IPR) as the Key Asset of a Family Firm : A Case Study with an Evaluation Approach

The role of immaterial production factors is becoming more and more important and they are estimated to be over two-thirds of what is required in production in our post-industrial time. Accordingly, the discussion of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as key assets is increasing. If these assets are wrongly estimated, this can be very harm-ful in loan negotiations, credit ratings, taxation, and family business successions or sell-outs. The research question of the present study is: How does a family business owner evaluate the IPR goodwill of his company, and what are his experiences of fin-anciers' evaluations? The case firm in the study is a Finnish firm that produces rec-orded material, …