Stuart Graham

The Modern Family Business

Family business research is dominated by a small number of scholars from a relatively small number of academic institutions (Debecki et at. 2009). This concentration of scholars is focused in the US and Canada with 17 of the 25 top schools being located in these countries (Debecki et al. 2009). Five years ago in the UK, Family Business was relatively unheard of in management studies circles. While academics in the US have been investigating and studying the phenomenon for years, interest in the subject has only just begun to filter into the UK management academic’s psyche and vernacular. UK academics have begun to recognise the unique qualities and managerial challenges that family businesses face and are beginning to give more time to investigating these challenges and characteristics. While the US has taught family business courses for many years, and it has an active network of family business advisors and a national recognition that family business is important to the US economy, the UK and Europe have lagged behind. This book is a response to this situation and also hopefully a contribution to the discussions about management issues facing the modern family business.

Exploring Scottish family businesses: economy, geography and community

The results from this debate will provide a starting point for future theoretical and action research and a key aim of the proposed discussion paper is to encourage interested parties with diverse expertise to contribute and highlight their interest in future participation. The implications of this debate are profound and will impact upon Scotland in a variety of ways in terms of economic, cultural and community development. The role of those different groups involved – entrepreneurs, policy makers, practitioners, researchers and educators – will be key. The value of this paper lies primarily in its contribution to a debate and the call for further research in an area of key importance to the Scottish and, indeed, the UK economy.

The Future of Family Business Education in UK Business Schools.

Purpose – This practitioner paper aims to question basic assumptions about management education and to argue that a new paradigm is needed for UK business schools which embraces an oft neglected, yet economically vital, stakeholder group, namely family businesses. It seeks to pose the question of why we have forgotten to teach about family business management in the management portfolio.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a stakeholder approach, building on nominal stakeholder theory to justify a change to the teaching paradigm in business schools. It builds on discussions in the extant literature about failures of business schools to address modern needs.Findings – The authors find that business schools in the UK need to begin to engage with family businesses through embracing the next generation from families in business. Policy needs to be developed that will support the next generation in a positive way by teaching about the family in business.Originality/value – The paper aims to stimulate...

Harmonizing the Family Business: Deconstructing the DNA of the Family Business

The Modern Family Business has hoped to offer insight into the complex variety of relationships which make up the family business. The purpose of this final chapter is twofold: to bring together those relationships and to consider the complexity of the overview they offer. Further, this chapter seeks to provide an overview and conceptualization of family business relationships which draws on the metaphor of DNA. The conceptual representation of such businesses by means of a metaphoric analogy, the ‘DNA’ of the family business, allows both the complexity of family business relationships to be considered and also their capacity for change: The capacity of DNA to ‘blunder’ or mutate allows evolution to develop and stands here as a parallel to the process of ongoing change within family business. This process of change, development and variety is evidenced in many of the chapters within this book.