Josep Tàpies

Comparison of Family and Nonfamily Business: Financial Logic and Personal Preferences

Research has identified important differences between family businesses (FBs) and nonfamily businesses (NFBs). The difficulty, however, lies in explaining the reasons for those differences. In this article, Professors Miguel A. Gallo and Josep Tàpies, and Research Associate Kristin Cappuyns, all of IESE, International Business School, Barcelona, report the results of an investigation into the “peculiar financial logic”of FBs, based on a sample of 305 Spanish firms. After looking at some of the more general differences between the FBs and NFBs in the sample, in terms of company age, sales, employees, capital, and internationalization, the authors compare the financial ratios of the two types of companies. Generally speaking, the FBs are found to be older and to have lower sales, fewer employees, fewer full-time employees on permanent contracts, a smaller share capital, fewer shareholders, and a higher proportion of board members among the shareholders. However, when digging into the financial policies implemented in both types of companies, the differences found indicate that personal preferences concerning growth, risk, and ownership-control may be the driving forces behind the “peculiar financial logic” of FBs. The authors conclude that while many FBs outshine their NFB rivals in many respects, some of them lack a genuine long-term business policy or a commitment to growth and evolution. If the aversion to risk and loss of control is due to the managerowners personal apprehensions or ambitions, then that manager-owner is, wittingly or unwittingly, spoiling the companys chances of being able to compete in the future.

Values and Longevity in Family Business: Evidence from a Cross-Cultural Analysis

The link between longevity and values has been pointed out by several authors, who have underlined values as an important factor for supporting a long-term vision, as well as a source of competitive advantage based on using values as specific company resources. Nevertheless, not many empirical works have dealt with this topic. The present paper aims to shed light on this stream of research by developing a cross-cultural analysis, contrasting samples from Spain, Italy, France and Finland.

A Model of Psychological Ownership in Next-Generation Members of Family-Owned Firms: A Qualitative Study

The present research study is intended to provide further insights into the psychological ownership experienced by next-generation members in relation to their family firms. As this is still a very young area of research, explorative research is needed. Therefore, a mixed-methods qualitative investigation, using a sample of 20 next-generation members of family-owned firms of different sizes, generational stages and business sectors, was performed. Through interpretative phenomenological and ethnographic analyses, the origin, transmission and manifestations of psychological ownership towards the family business were studied. The study also explored the factors that foster or undermine the development of a healthy and fulfilling relationship between next-generation members and the family business. Our findings suggest that next-generation members generally experience strong levels of psychological ownership. The development of positive psychological ownership is associated with factors including shared experiences, well-functioning governance bodies, structured and planned entry to the business, psychological empowerment, and share ownership, among others.

Key Issues in Family Councils: Insights from the Spanish Experience

As successful families in business grow in family size and number of shareholders, they commonly develop a particular kind of family organization, often referred to as the family council. This family organization usually becomes the familys central governing body. Although family councils are very common among highly complex multigenerational family-owned businesses, implementing them appears to be a challenging task, as each family has its own idea and this idea is likely to evolve over time. With the aim of helping families in business reflect upon or review their family governance system, the present study aims at learning from the experience of 16 Spanish family-owned businesses by analyzing different areas of interest such as the different types of family councils, their key features, the reasons for starting a family council, the objectives of creating a family council, the stages of a family council and the characteristics of other governance structures connected to the family council. Investigating these issues can help multigenerational family-owned businesses to succeed as well-structured organizations that keep the family connected and committed towards a common mission, vision and values. Limitations and future research are also discussed.