Josiane Fahed-Sreih

Determinants of Longevity and Success in Lebanese Family Businesses: An Exploratory Study

This article explores the characteristics of Lebanese family businesses using a sample of 114 firms and tests various propositions regarding the relationships between correlates of effective succession planning and longevity. Successful family businesses in Lebanon exhibit a variety of responses to the variables that are conducive to success. The findings indicate that older firms are more inclined to use a participatory decision-making process, as evidenced by more reliance on advisory boards. A significantly larger proportion of older firms relative to younger ones holds family meetings and has formal redemption and liquidity plans. Firms in our sample are characterized by liberal attitudes: more than 75% consider female ownership acceptable and more than two-thirds of the firms respond positively to potential female CEOs.

Islam, entrepreneurship and business values in the Middle East

Entrepreneurship has become a defining business trend around the world, especially in economies transitioning towards free market systems. The Middle East, specifically the Gulf Region is a growing, lucrative marketplace that has captured the interest of the world for political, economic and cultural reasons. This research explores the impact of Islam on the cultural, geo-political and economic dimensions which shape and influence entrepreneurship and private enterprise development in the Middle East.

An exploratory study on a new corporate governance mechanism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships between different governance configurations and firm survival. The objective is to describe the alternative mechanisms through which the owning family takes a stake in the governance of the firm.Design/methodology/approach – The governance systems of 116 family enterprises in Lebanon are examined. The study integrates family, ownership, leadership and the business itself constituting the four structural elements of a family firms governance system. Then, the study tests four hypotheses whether the family, the ownership, the leadership and the business dimensions influence positively firm survival/longevity. The other hypotheses tested concern the advisory services and the legal form of the board, and how that might affect the survival/longevity of the family firm.Findings – This integrative view allows observation of interactions among the different structures, and the establishment of a coordinating governing structure. Hypotheses testing r...

Family contributions to entrepreneurial development in Lebanon

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to profile the characteristics, attributes and growth orientations of Lebanese entrepreneurs, including the relationships, roles, and contributions that family and culture make and play in the development of private small and medium‐sized enterprises.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a sample of 112 entrepreneurs, psychographic motives, demographic attributes, and business activities are revealed. A series of 112 in‐depth personal interviews was conducted over a 12 month period between May 2006 and 2007. The entrepreneurial profile questionnaire (EPQ) was utilized as a data collection instrument. The EPQ was designed to survey the effect of individual, societal, and environmental factors on entrepreneurship and family business development by collecting a combination of demographic information and extensive detail related to characteristics and orientations.Findings – The findings suggest that entrepreneurs are motivated by the need for independence and flexibi...

American versus Arab/Islamic family businesses

Purpose – The purpose of this research was to compare the use of non-family-members in the higher-level management team of Arab/Islamic family businesses versus American family businesses. Design/methodology/approach – This research gathered survey data and tested the hypothesis using analysis of covariance. Findings – American family businesses engaged the services of non-family-member managers to a statistically significant greater degree than did Arab/Islamic family businesses. Originality/value – The research literature on Arab/Islamic entrepreneurship is very limited, and a family business study of this nature has not been previously conducted. This study furthermore challenges the common assumption that the findings generated in one specific country can usually be generalized to the broader phenomenon of family business, as it exists in most countries.

Strategic Planning, Performance And Innovative Capabilities Of Non-Family Members In Family Businesses

Drawing upon the resource-based view and agency theories of family businesses, this study examines the role of strategic planning in developing non-family members’ innovative capabilities and the effect of strategic planning on family businesses’ performance mediated by those capabilities. It was found that strategic planning positively affects the business’ performance, it helps non-family members develop their innovative capabilities which have a positive effect on the performance of the business mediating the relationship between strategic planning and performance. A survey was distributed to Lebanese family businesses for data collection. This study contributes to theory and practice; it suggests more fields of studies and helps family firms’ owners in improving the business’ performance.

Motives for Entrepreneurship: The Case of Lebanese Family Businesses

Family businesses are the engine that drives socioeconomic development and wealth creation around the world, and entrepreneurship is a key driver of family businesses. The ability to build and keep the business running over generations is a major element of family business continuity and is influential in strategic execution, innovation, and growth. Entrepreneurial family businesses are a primary source of job creation (Shanker & Astrachan, 1996) in market economies where resources are allocated via supply and demand. In Lebanon, family businesses constitute 85% of the private sector, accounting for 1.05 million of 1.24 million jobs (Fahed-Sreih, 2006). The family unit is usually the only intact institution capable of sustaining entrepreneurial activities in Lebanon following civil war.

Dakroub Textiles 3

This chapter studies the case of a family business that was founded in the year 1953 in Beirut by an ambitious poor man named Mohammad Dakroub. Mohammad built with his sons a company that generates a business in millions of dollars due to his innovative marketing strategy and smart vision. This case portrays a family business that started with strong family ties and ended up with a conflict and break up in the family. The uniqueness of this story lays in how one of the brothers made his brother accept his wishes even though it was not totally to his brother’s benefit.

Conflict in Family Businesses

This chapter begins with a review of the literature on conflicts in family businesses. It shows how they are a fertile environment for conflicts. It also deliberates the effect of conflicts in family businesses on their overall performance. Moreover, it contributes by drawing models of conflict in family businesses.

What’s the Most Important in Human’s Life? “Family OR Business”

The conflict between the L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and her daughter, Francoise, demonstrated how toxic family relationships can become when poorly mixed with business and questions of inheritance (Mayoras et al. 2011). The conflict started soon after the father’s death, by the claims of the daughter that the photographer Mr. Banier, a longtime close friend to Bettencourt’s family, is using the mother’s mental frailty to gain more money from her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, the richest women in Europe according to Forbes. The conflict began by raising a lawsuit against the photographer and developed to implicate Liliane Bettencourt and one of Sarkozy’s most important ministers in tax evasion and campaign finance violations. The case shows the importance of communication in conflict resolution.