Frank Hoy

Context and Uniqueness of Family Businesses

Family businesses represent the majority of companies and are an important source for the generation of jobs in most countries. Longevity is very important for the family businesses and for economies as a whole. Succession is one of the most difficult decisions for the family business, and one of the most important. When business leadership transitions are not well structured they may cause expensive legal issues leading to the sale or eventual loss of the business. This chapter presents a review of some general, but very important issues, related to family businesses.

Book Review: Keeping the Family Business Healthy: How to Plan for Continuing Growth, Profitability, and Family Leadership:

Several books examining family business published in the past 25 years may legitimately be labeled seminal. Some of our earliest exposures were through autobiographies and biographies of well-known families: the Rothschilds, DuPonts, Fords, and others. Consultants such as Léon Danco, Gerald Le Van, and David Bork wrote books describing their observations and recommendations, giving readers perspectives on the relationships between families and their enterprises. In 1987, John Ward was among the first to produce a guide for family firms that was derived from a research base. Keeping the Family Business Healthy: How to Plan for Continuing Growth, Profitability, and Family Leadership proved to be influential to both practitioners and scholars, being reissued and updated. As we track the evolution of the field, other authors have also been influential. Generation to Generation: Life Cycles of the Family Business by Kelin Gersick, John Davis, Marion McCollom Hampton, and Ivan Lansberg is one of the most important contributions from the 1990s, and Managing for the Long Run: Lessons in Competitive Advantage From Great Family Businesses by Danny Miller and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller helped direct researchers in new ways as we entered the 21st century. Each of these three books has been reviewed previously in Family Business Review (Aronoff, 1996; Guzzo, 1988; Sharma, 2005). In this anniversary issue, we take another look at these bodies of work and the roles they have played in advancing knowledge, including reflections by the authors. Ward and the 1980s

Franchising – multifaceted form of entrepreneurship

The present study takes an entrepreneurship viewpoint toward franchising. To create a theoretical framework, past franchising literature was reviewed and prior studies considering franchising as entrepreneurial activity were analysed. The literature analysis showed that prior franchising studies have rarely regarded franchising as a form of entrepreneurship. Likewise, theories explaining the birth, growth and survival of franchising are rather distant from entrepreneurship. However, recent franchising enquiries have taken an approach that comes closer to entrepreneurship. Franchising is a rapidly growing form of business in several countries around the world. This increasing importance in the global economy demands further scholarly research into the phenomenon.

Family entrepreneurship and internationalization strategies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of family entrepreneurship and internationalization strategies by discussing the papers in this special journal issue. Design/methodology/approach The main research areas related to family business are discussed in terms of socioemotional wealth and societal trends. A review of the literature is conducted to highlight the emerging themes affecting the decision of family businesses to internationalize. Findings The paper stresses how it is important to have an entrepreneurial approach to internationalization of family businesses. Research limitations/implications As more family businesses are born globals, it is important to focus on the positive aspects of internationalization, including emerging markets and gaining important entrepreneurial knowledge. Practical implications Family businesses need to be more innovative and risk-taking in their approach to internationalization as it helps them build their reputation and increase performance. Originality/value As there are limited studies about family entrepreneurship and internationalization in terms of a broad view of family, this paper takes an inclusive approach to the changing nature of how a family is defined in today’s global society.

Origins of Family Business Research

This chapter seeks to identify contributions that led to major research themes that are fundamental in the family business body of knowledge. We found significant influences not only from academic scholars but also practitioners, especially in the early stages of the development of the field. This chapter documents the origins of research streams that dominate family business scholarship as measured by citation count. Following our categorization of topics, we propose directions for future research that may build on the seminal works.

Toward the Service Science of Education

This article applies the service science framework to higher education. To understand the reasons behind the success and failure of academic programs, we build on the previous literature that suggests that education is a service delivered by universities, which are viewed as complex systems. We contribute to the service science theory by introducing a methodological tool called the Service Science Canvas, which incorporates elements and principles common to all service systems. The Service Science Canvas is a convenient tool for identifying components of academic programs. This article reviews educational programs in entrepreneurship, and, as a case study, it examines an entrepreneurship program at a technological university in the United States.

Entrepreneurship Education as a Service

This chapter addresses the extension of entrepreneurship education across disciplines and divisions on a university campus. We draw on service science theory to examine how such academic programs may be designed, implemented and assessed. The experience at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the United States serves as a case study, which we review using the Service Science Canvas, a tool for analysis that incorporates the common elements of service systems. Besides making a methodological contribution to the entrepreneurship literature, the framework developed in this chapter can be used for strategic planning by university leaders and program directors.

WPI iCREATE: Innovation and Translation in Senior Level Biomedical Engineering Course

Traditional engineering programs provide an excellent foundation in technical knowledge and skills. However, to be effective problem solvers, today’s engineering students need to develop an innovation mindset. With this goal in mind, a group of faculty from WPI Engineering Departments and from the Business School formed WPI iCREATE: iCREATE: Innovation Center for REsearch And Technology Entrepreneurship. This new center is focused on bringing innovation and entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate courses, partially through the development of teaching modules.Copyright

WPI iCREATE: Graduate Training in Innovative Translation

Traditional doctoral degree programs in engineering are generally good at teaching “Linear Thinking,” that is the ability to apply existing knowledge to achieve important, but predictable, outcomes (as defined by Stauffer (2005)). However, with few exceptions, the US engineering educational system falls short in enabling the vital attributes of innovation: adaptability, inventiveness, and the confidence to propose new paradigms.Copyright

Micro-finance agencies and SMEs: model of explication of tacit knowledge

This paper contributes to a new area of research, namely: institutional preparedness of economic development agencies for developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The cases presented illustrate variations in the micro-finance lender agency-enterprise development of processes for sharing vision and interdependence. In clarifying the nature of the agency-enterprise relationship along these two dimensions, we develop a set of propositions. Our model contends: 1) that effective processes for sharing vision and good cooperation maximise the likelihood of explication of tacit knowledge; 2) that ineffective processes for sharing vision and good cooperation lead to ad hoc explication of tacit knowledge; 3) ineffective processes for sharing vision and poor cooperation minimise the likelihood of explication of tacit knowledge; 4) effective processes for sharing vision and poor cooperation maximise the likelihood of explication of tacit knowledge.