Martin R. W. Hiebl

Risk aversion in family firms: what do we really know?

Purpose - Risk aversion is an important characteristic associated with family firms. Despite growing literature in recent years, a consistent picture of what we know about the risk aversion of family firms has not evolved. Thus, this paper presents a systematic overview of whether family firms are found to be more risk averse than non-family firms, the factors influencing the risk aversion of family firms and the outcomes of risk aversion. Design/methodology/approach - This paper follows the tenets of Tranfield Findings - Most studies find that family firms are indeed more risk-averse than non-family firms. However, some findings advance the notion that this phenomenon strongly depends on the situation of the family firm and that the controlling family may take irrational risks to secure control over the firm. From content analysis, five clusters of factors increasing or decreasing the risk aversion of family firms and six clusters on the outcomes of risk aversion are derived. Research limitations/implications - A broad array of potentially fruitful research directions is presented. Specifically, more qualitative research on risk aversion in family firms is needed, as well as research that takes into account the situational factors and the reactions of the financial services industry to the risk-avoiding behavior of family firms. Originality/value - This paper represents the first comprehensive literature review on risk aversion in family firms.

The changing role of management accounting in the transition from a family business to a non‐family business

Purpose – The purpose of the present paper is to investigate whether the transition from a family business to a non‐family business affects the institutionalisation of management accounting.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on an online survey among all large and medium‐sized Austrian firms. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were used to test the impact of the level of family influence on aspects of the institutionalisation of management accounting. Firm size is included as the main control variable.Findings – A lower level of influence from the controlling family was found to be correlated with the institutionalisation and intensification of management accounting in medium‐sized firms. For large firms, such a linear relationship could not be drawn. The level of education of management accountants was inversely correlated with the level of family influence in both large and medium‐sized firms.Research limitations/implications – Further research into the reasons, underlying d...

Risk management in SMEs: a systematic review of available evidence

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of available research evidence on risk management in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors aim to reveal ambiguities, gaps and contradictions in the literature, and to sketch avenues for further research. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors follow the tenets of Tranfield Findings - – The review identified various types of risks that may occur in SMEs. In addition, the publication analysis demonstrates the importance of a risk management process in SMEs and that the characteristics of SME owners have a significant impact on their business strategies. Research limitations/implications - – Additional empirical research on risk identification, risk analysis, strategy implementation and control in the SME risk management process is needed. Originality/value - – This paper is the first comprehensive review of the body of literature on risk management in SMEs.

Management accounting and management control in family businesses

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to comprehensively review the empirical literature on management accounting and control in family businesses and to identify future research avenues. Academic interest in the field of management accounting and control in family businesses has increased considerably during the past decade. Family businesses constitute a unique organisational form that apparently faces a lower degree of information asymmetry compared to non-family businesses. In turn, this may limit their need for management accounting and control systems. However, recent reviews of accounting in family businesses have not yet comprehensively reviewed the literature on management accounting and control. The present paper aims to close this gap. Design/methodology/approach – This review follows the guidelines proposed by Tranfield et al. (2003) for conducting a systematic literature review. This paper has identified 33 relevant articles, which were scanned for findings on the antecedents, configuratio...

No Consensus in Sight: An Analysis of Ten Years of Family Business Definitions in Empirical Research Studies

Family business (FB) scholars often criticize the fact that FB research has not yet developed a commonly accepted definition of what constitutes an FB. At the same time, the literature lacks empirical evidence for this claim. Hence, we collected all empirical FB research articles published between 2002 and 2011 in the five leading FB research journals to examine the types of FB definitions used in the literature and to determine how their usage relates to bibliographical and methodological contextual factors. The resulting 238 articles were analyzed in terms of their underlying approaches to defining FBs. Our paper provides empirical support for the notion that FB research has not yet found a commonly accepted definition of FB. Most definitions can be classified as being rooted in the components-of-involvement approach (44% of all evaluated articles), in the essence approach (21%), or in a combination of the two (33%). We also find that the type of FB definition used in empirical research in our sample is significantly associated with the publication outlet, the continent of data collection, the number of authors and the stock market listing status of analyzed firms.

Family Influence and Management Accounting Usage – Findings from Germany and Austria

Although contingency-based research finds many factors that influence a firm’s management accounting (MA) system, despite the vast economic importance of family firms in most Western countries, researchers have not considered family influence as a contingency variable for MA systems. Using survey results from Germany and Austria, we explore the effect of the level of family influence on selected aspects of MA usage. We find that firms with higher levels of family influence use fewer strategic and operational MA instruments, formalize their strategic plans to a lesser extent, establish fewer discrete MA departments, and employ fewer management accountants with academic degrees.

INSTITUTIONALISATION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING IN FAMILY BUSINESSES — EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM AUSTRIA AND GERMANY

This study investigates whether family businesses (FBs) differ from non-family businesses (NFBs) regarding the institutionalisation of management accounting. Furthermore, it analyses whether FB-specific contextual factors such as the existence of non-family management and the level of family influence affect the establishment of discrete management accounting departments. Six hypotheses are formulated and tested based on survey results from 479 firms from Austria and 418 firms from Germany. Our results indicate that FBs establish fewer management accounting departments than NFBs do and that the heads of management accounting in FBs are less likely to hold a university degree compared with their counterparts in NFBs. Moreover, within FBs, larger firm size and the existence of non-family management are positively correlated with the establishment of management accounting departments, where firm size acts as the strongest predictor. As firm type (FB vs. NFB) emerged as a significant contextual factor for the institutionalisation of management accounting, this factor should be included in future studies of the organisation and set-up of the corporate management accounting function. Moreover, deeper investigation into the drivers and outcomes of FB-specific management accounting institutionalisation is needed.

An analysis of the role of a Chief Accountant at Guinness c. 1920–1940

Contemporary studies on the role of Chief Financial Officers create a picture that a radical change in the 1960s created such a role. Predecessor-positions were more focused on transaction-processing aspects of accounting. While historical accounting publications shed some doubt on this assumption, they lack detail on the roles and tasks of such predecessors in the early parts of the twentieth century. Here, we provide a more in-depth analysis of a chief accountant in the period from 1920 to 1940 at Arthur Guinness, Son & Company Ltd. Informed by concepts from Old Institutional Economics, our evidence suggests that the Chief Accountant at Guinness has much in common with a modern-day role. In contrast, we find that even in the first half of the twentieth century before any substantial company law or regulation of accounting, the Chief Accountant was not only doing accounting, but also significantly advising top management, managing risks and interacting with external financiers. This analysis suggests a more gradual development of the role and tasks of internal accountants than that suggested by some contemporary literature.

Towards a definition of performance for religious organizations and beyond

Purpose - – This paper aims to analyze how performance may be defined in the context of a religious organization. The authors do so by studying the case of a Benedictine abbey. Design/methodology/approach - – Using an etymologically derived understanding of performance, and predominantly based on the Findings - – The authors found that in order to comply with the Benedictine mission laid out in the Research limitations/implications - – The study provides an alternative framing of the term “performance” and further evidence that only a combined pursuit of sacred and secular goals seems useful for religious organizations. Researchers interested in religious organizations might find the conceptual approach and findings useful to analyze performance in such organizations. Practical implications - – Benedictine abbeys and other religious organizations may find the analysis valuable to critically analyze their current strategies and focal activities. Moreover, this papers results might also be worthwhile for other faith-based or third-sector organizations when seeking an alternative framing of performance. Originality/value - – This paper provides a new framing of “performance” and is the first to analyze what performance might mean in the context of a Benedictine abbey.

What can the corporate world learn from the cellarer

Purpose – Benedictine abbeys are highly stable organisations that have existed for almost 1,500 years. The extant literature ascribes this stability in part to the notion of Benedictine governance, which centres on the Rule of St Benedict (RB). An integral part of Benedictine governance is the cellarer, who plays a role comparable to that of a chief financial officer (CFO) in a traditional corporation. Unlike corporations, however, in which the CFO has emerged into a more important role over the past few decades, the cellarer has been an official position in Benedictine abbeys since the introduction of the RB in the sixth century. The present paper aims to explore the cellarers role and assesses which parts of it could be reasonably transferred to the corporate world. Design/methodology/approach – Informed by organisational role theory, the authors conducted a single case study in an Austrian Benedictine abbey. The authors used group discussions and semi-structured interviews as the main research instrum...