عناوین پژوهشی در حوزه کسب و کارهای خانوادگی

Topic Questions for future research

Psychological foundations of management

•• What are the psychological foundations of family firm (FF) actors’ choices? How do specific heuristics of FF agents affect the discovery of opportunities or their strategic choices?

•• How do the psychological heuristics used by the founder and other family members affect the dynamics of FF governance (for instance, CEO turnover)? Do the typical social issues

of FFs (such as trust and loyalty) reinforce the affirmation of some heuristics?

•• What are the main sources of FF owners’ and managers’ cognitive biases and how does family involvement matter? Do differences in the extent and type of family involvement

(e.g., in ownership, management, governance) produce different effects?

•• What is the relationship between the typical social dominance of FF leaders and the emergence of hubris bias? Are there generational differences?

•• Do the distinctive features of FF actors and groups, and their interactions, determine the emergence of Machiavellianism (i.e., goal-oriented behavior that justifies manipulating and

exploiting others) in subsequent generation? What changes in the first generation?

•• Do family owners’ extraversion and agreeableness affect family and nonfamily members’ behaviors and, in turn, FFs’ performance and longevity?

•• How do personality constructs (e.g., the Dark Triad, the Big Five, Proactive Personality) and personality theories (e.g., socioanalytic theory, trait activation theory, situation

strength theory, personality development, whole trait theory) can be used to increase the explanatory power of predictions of FF behavior and the ultimate effect on FF outcomes?

Family business goals and socioemotional wealth (SEW)

•• What goals do different FF actors pursue?

•• How do such goals relate to the individual characteristics of different actors and how do they influence decision-making processes in FFs?

•• How do the social interactions processes between FF actors result in different sets of family-centered and business-centered organizational goals pursued by FFs?

•• How does the impact of FF owners’ and managers’ heuristics on economic and noneconomic outcomes differ between FFs and nonFFs?

•• How do different FF actors and their interactions pursue different SEW dimensions? What are the mutual influences among different SEW dimensions?

•• How do FF decision makers frame their decisions and define their reference points? What affects the framing? How much more loss averse are they than nonFFs? Is there variation in their loss aversion?

•• Are the different SEW dimensions of equal value to different FF actors? If not, what causes the differences in the value determination? Are their combined effects additive, conjunctive, or disjunctive in forming SEW stocks?

•• How do FF actors manage the trade-offs or mixed gambles between SEW and financial wealth in FF strategic decisions?

•• What policies, strategies, structures, and tactics do FF actors use to build stocks of noneconomic benefits, such as social status of the CEO? Are these different from those that nonFF actors use?

•• How do different specifications of FF goal systems (e.g., business-first, family-first, multiple substitute goals, multiple complementary goals) at individual, group, and organizational level affect the assessment of financial and nonfinancial performance in FFs?

Succession ••

What is the goal of FF succession? Who (i.e., which actors) determine such goal? How is such goal related to the FF purpose? Do purposeful FFs have better succession?

•• Are some founders’ psychological attributes (e.g., conscientiousness and opeess) able to explain the effectiveness of succession plaing? How are unplaed successions managed at the micro level?

•• What role do different FF actors play in the unfolding of the cohabitation process during intrafamily succession? What differs in the case of external succession?

•• What is the role of family, nonfamily members, and outside professional in enabling organizational change during intrafamily succession, and how is such organizational change achieved?

•• How do parental behaviors affect the ability and willingness of the next generation to join the FF? Do different inter- and intrageneration social interaction patterns affect differently the new generation’s intention to take over the FF and/or the senior generation’s intention to hand over the FF?

•• Does the family’s influence on decision-making processes for the fate of the FF change with time, especially as later generations take over? If yes, how and why?

•• How do intergenerational tensions result in acts of collaboration versus battles across generations? How do FFs reconcile conflicting transition processes?

•• How can we conceptualize and measure success of succession by taking into account the preferences and aspirations of all the internal and external stakeholders of the succession process?

Iovation and internationalization

•• What are the benefits and risks of family owners’ emotional attachment and power that may influence the level of absorptive capacity of a FF? How do such effects evolve over time?

•• How does collaborative iovation happen in FFs? What are the micro-level barriers and challenges for open and collaborative iovation in FFs? For digital and business model iovation?

•• How do the family and nonfamily managers’ heuristics influence the FF’s international expansion and/or iovation decisions?

•• What type of entry mode for international expansion (e.g., FDI, international joint ventures, exports) or type of iovation (e.g., radical vs. incremental, product vs. process vs. business model) would a narcissistic family leader prefer?

•• How do differences in the time orientation of different FF actors result in different iovation and/or internationalization behavior?

•• What is the role played by learning and unlearning dynamics at individual, group, and organizational level in shaping FF iovation and/or internationalization behavior and outcomes?

•• What are the micropractices through which FFs manage the tensions between tradition and iovation?

Strategy execution

•• How do FFs carry out and/or face the challenges associated with strategy execution (i.e., required tasks, actors, delegation of tasks, sequence of actions, accountabilities, and deliverables)?

•• How do such challenges vary across FFs from different generations?

•• How do the characteristics of FF actors, the structures they are embedded in and the interactions among them influence the set of tasks required to implement the firm’s strategy, the processes by which FFs delegate and sequence actions in executing such strategy, and the formal mechanisms for information-based controls that are needed for strategy execution (i.e., accountabilities and deliverables)?

•• When and under what conditions do family dynamics enhance or hinder strategy execution in the FF? What is the role played by family and nonfamily actors and their interactions?

•• How does information processing and task alignment happens in FFs? Any differences versus nonFFs?

•• Do strategy execution processes emerge, develop, change, or are discarded in different way in FFs? If yes, how and why?

•• How does the temporal evolution of the family and business systems affect the identity, beliefs, priorities, and goal hierarchies of different FF actors? How, in turn, does this affect the sequencing of their actions?

•• Do FFs versus nonFFs prefer to adopt a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach to strategy execution? If yes, why?

•• What are the formal and informal mechanisms and norms through which FF principals monitor their actors? Does belonging to the family system play a role? If yes, what are the different mechanisms used to monitor family and nonfamily members as well as different types of family members?

•• Who are the managers in FFs accountable to?

•• How do actors’ goals, resources, and power determine the nature and quantity of deliverables a FF will focus on?

•• How do obligations to reporting and accountability vary among different types of family and nonfamily actors within the FF?

•• What are the implications of different aspects of strategy execution (i.e., required tasks, actors, delegation of tasks, sequence of actions, accountabilities, and deliverables) on FF outcomes?

•• How do FF outcomes influence the strategy execution aspects at the micro level?

Ability and willingness to behave

•• What determines a controlling family’s ability to influence firm behavior?

•• What determines a controlling family’s willingness to use its influence to pursue particularistic ends?

•• How do different aspects of family heterogeneity (i.e., different family functions, structures, interactions, and events) affect the family’s ability and/or willingness to influence firm behavior?

•• What is the interplay of the family’s ability and willingness in shaping the FF’s behavior? How does the family’s influence navigates across the family, individual, and organizational levels?

•• How do different configurations of the family’s ability and willingness affect the strategic drivers of FF behavior (i.e., resources, governance, goals) and ultimately FF outcomes?

•• How do different configurations in the family’s ability and willingness result in different levels and types of the FF’s ability and willingness to behave?

•• Do the family members’ relationships and interactions in the family setting affect management processes in the business setting? If yes, how?

•• How does latitude in strategic decisions concerning how firm resources are developed, deployed, and shed depend on the organizational authority of the involved family?

•• Are different degrees of the family’s ability and willingness related to different types of family involvement?

•• How do the ability and willingness of family owners change as the business and/or the family systems evolve over time?

Emotions

•• How do differences in the positions of individuals within the three systems of a FF—family, ownership, and management—determine differences in their emotional experiences, and how these affect FF behaviors?

•• How do the emotions of (family) owners and managers and the effects of these emotions change over time?

•• How do situational events such as FF succession or entry of nonfamily manager(s) affect emotions of family and nonfamily members?

•• Which emotions emerging from the family setting have stronger effects on FFs? In which circumstances, and how do positive emotions (e.g., happiness, warmth, love, surprise) and negative emotions (e.g., anger, fear, sadness, disgust) affect FF iovation, competitive advantage, and performance?

•• Do different emotions result from different emotional experiences of family and nonfamily members?

•• How do emotions differently affect interactions with stakeholders in FFs versus nonFFs? What interactions are most affected (e.g., with employees, customers, partners, investors) and how does this change decision-making processes?

•• Under which conditions do positive emotions result in negative outcomes, and negative emotions lead to positive outcomes for FF? What is the effect of the interplay of positive and negative emotions in FFs?

•• How do individual characteristics of FF actors (e.g., age, gender, family status, generation, introvert/extrovert, emotional stability, dark-side personality) affect how other actors and teams (e.g., top management team, board of directors, family council) respond to various emotional experiences in FFs?

•• How do emotions influence the type of activities performed by FF actors, or the time FF actors devote to different types of activities?

•• How do emotion-related variables such as empathy and emotional intelligence influence the success of FF leaders and leader influences on subordinates in FFs?

•• How do emotions or emotions-related concepts (e.g., emotional dissonance) affect group dynamics (e.g., different types of conflicts) in FFs?

•• How do emotionally heterogeneous groups (i.e., groups whose members experience diverse emotions) create collective emotions in FFs? How do collective emotions (e.g., team entrepreneurial passion) influence the outcomes of individuals (e.g., creativity, job satisfaction, iovative work behavior, productivity), groups (e.g., team iovativeness, team learning), and organizations (e.g., operational or financial performance) in FFs?

•• Which role do emotions or emotion-related processes and mechanisms play in explaining/resolving the FFs’ paradoxes and/or dilemmas (e.g., long-term vs. short-term orientation, exploration vs. exploitation, ability and willingness paradox in FF iovation)?

•• What emotion management actions can be undertaken in FFs? How are these actions embedded in the organizational routines of FFs?

•• How can “emotional theories” that take into account some microfoundational aspects (e.g., appraisal theory, affect infusion model, network theory of affect, affective events theory, affect theory of social exchange) or neuroscience contribute to a better understanding of FF behavior and outcomes?

Family system and family science

•• What is a family and what implications does family heterogeneity in terms of family structures (e.g., nuclear vs. extended family), family functions (e.g., employment), family interactions (e.g., cohesion and communication), and family events (e.g., birth, death, divorce) have on FF succession and other FF behaviors?

•• Which family characteristics (in terms of structures, functions, interactions, and events) are conducive to more effective and/or efficient FF processes?

•• How do contemporary phenomena affecting families (e.g., multiple marriages, same-sex couples, domestic partnerships, single-parenthood, step-families, divorces) and/or individuals within or interacting with families (e.g., aging crisis, declining fertility) influence the determinants, processes, and outcomes of FFs (e.g., intergenerational dynamics)?

•• How do such contemporary phenomena disrupt or alter current theories about FF behavior?

•• Does the higher family complexity engendered by divorce, step-parenting, remarriage, cohabitation, or repartnering increase the potential for conflicts in the FF? What is the effect on FF performance?

•• How do the new challenges posed by the aging crisis (i.e., individuals living longer) affect FF succession?

•• How does family functionality—referring to the functional integrity and stability of relationships among family members—and dispersion of family involvement shape FF behavior?

Social capital

•• What are the mechanisms by which FF social capital is formed? Are there differences between internal and external social capital?

•• How do different FF actors extract benefits from the formation and reactivation of social ties and get access to resources through social relationships?

•• How do FFs leverage on social capital to establish cooperation with other firms?

•• How can internal and external social capital be nurtured in the transition from a generation to the next in a FF? How can the social capital of the senior generation be integrated with the social capital of the new generation? How do intergenerational social capital dynamics unfold?

•• Under what circumstances do families encourage or discourage members to develop ties outside the family system for business purposes?

•• How do different types of family embeddendness affect the formation and development of social capital, and vice versa?

Organizational design, boards, and top management teams (TMTs)

•• How do different FF actors make organizational design decisions—in terms of considering in concert coordination mechanisms, communication mechanisms, delegation of decision authority, incentives, formalization, and size?

•• How do the extent and type of family involvement, as well as the interplay between family and nonfamily members, affect boards and TMTs organizational design and the strategic decision-making process?

•• How do family owners’ personality traits affect the organizational design of boards and TMTs?

•• How does the organizational design of boards and TMTs affect FF behaviors and outcomes?

•• What is the interplay of boards/TMTs demographic characteristics (e.g., board/TMT composition) and boards/TMTs organizational design configurations in shaping FF behavior and outcomes?

•• How do characteristics of directors and board processes influence FF decision making and performance?

•• How do the characteristics of top executives and TMT processes and functioning influence FF decision making and performance?

•• How does disclosure of information in board-management relations affects the inclusion of outside directors in the board and board service performance?

Family business branding/ authenticity

•• How and why is organizational authenticity generated in a FF setting? What are the actors contributing to build FF authenticity?

•• How does organizational authenticity evolve across generations?

•• How do FFs iovate while being authentic? What is the role of different actors?

•• What makes a FF brand perceived as authentic? Are there any particular structures, interaction processes and configurations of individuals and groups that facilitate such

perception?

•• What are the cognitive mechanisms in the minds of consumers that trigger their distinctive perception of FF brands as compared to nonFF brands (e.g., higher trust)?