Markku Ikävalko

The Role of Owner-Managers' Psychological Ownership in SME Strategic Behaviour

Abstract According to the theory of psychological ownership, the feeling of ownership does not necessitate legal ownership, and may emerge when a person gets to know the target intimately, controls it and invests in it. We focus in this study on owner-managers of small enterprises, and build on the fundamental assumption that psychological ownership and legal business ownership are not mutually exclusive. Our data from 150 Finnish SMEs supports the assumption that these owner-managers may have strong feelings of psychological ownership that influence their ability to manage the firm purely as an economic instrument.

Management and change in turbulent times: How do Russian small business managers perceive the development of their business environment?

This paper focuses on the management of small businesses in Russia. Despite the growing importance of the Russian small business sector, there are surprisingly few empirical studies focusing on this topic. As the business environment in Russia is repeatedly noted to be in constant change, the purpose of the paper is to explore Russian owner‐managers perceptions of the development of their business environment from 2000 to 2004. The paper reports the results of a survey conducted among 164 business managers in North‐West Russia. The results indicate that Russian owner‐managers tend to monitor changes in the business environment and adapt their management accordingly, if not beforehand. However, the results are not unambiguous, as the study found wide variations in the extent to which gap the managers monitored and adapted to perceived changes in the business environment.

Family Business System Models – A Case Study and Some Implications of Open Systems Perspective

Abstract This paper seeks to build an insight to the systemic models of family business from the closed-open systems perspective. We focus on family business system models, on the characteristics of open systems, and on the subsystems content of family system and ownership system in the family business context. The contemporary research on family business system models suggests that an open-systems approach is particularly useful in combining various elements of a family business together. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of a family business portfolio specializing in flowers. We conclude with notions of open system perspective on family business system models; and we suggest that the open system perspective brings new insight into the concept of family business, and it has important methodological implications to family business research.

Family business in family ownership portfolios

In this paper, we study family business portfolios and illustrate ownership that connects family and business systems. Traditional family business research has assumed the one family/one business concept to be the main model. This study builds on the ideas of modern portfolio theory and behavioural finance theory and suggests that the portfolio evaluation criteria of risk and return coexist with the basic family-based evaluation criteria of obligation, securing succession, or family unity. This longitudinal case study and case analysis suggest that the family can be seen as a viable governor for the business portfolio and that the family portfolio development can be characterised by the complex set of portfolio evaluation criteria, including the needs of the individual family members to the contingent needs of the distinct businesses. The paper concludes with a redefined collection of portfolio management criteria identified and suggestions for further research on the subject.