William F. Crittenden

Founder Centrality and Strategic Behavior in the Family-Owned Firm:

This paper explores how founders influence strategic management in the family business. The authors suggest it is essential to consider the central influence of a family firms founder on the top management group and on the firms strategic values, goals, and behavior. They further posit that a founder can be expected to shape the family firms interactions with the external environment. The authors explore the central role that a founder plays in a family business from a social network perspective and establish the basis for the founder centrality concept. Further, they develop a framework and propositions from which the founders influence on strategic behavior and performance may be studied.

Research on Strategic Management in Nonprofit Organizations Synthesis, Analysis, and Future Directions

This article presents a review and analysis of empirically based research on strategic management in nonprofit organizations reported in major journals from 1977 to the present. Although much work has been done on strategy formulation, types of strategies pursued, and implementation in nonprofits, significant gaps exist in our knowledge. Few explicit connections have been made among research studies, contributing to fragmentation of the field. Crucial relationships among strategy components are missing, and links between these components and organizational performance have yet to be made. The article analyzes what is known about strategic management in nonprofits and identifies questions for future research.

The Use of Digital Technologies in the Classroom: A Teaching and Learning Perspective.

Today’s college students, often referred to as the “digital generation,” use an impressive assortment of technological tools in a wide variety of ways. However, the findings reported here suggest that students prefer more traditional instructional technology for effective engagement and learning. Faculty members, however, prefer the use of course-learning technology offered by their universities or publishers. In addition to this potential mismatch between preferences of students and teachers, the research finds that there are vast differences in preferences and usage across disciplines, in particular, business and economics instructors and students having stronger technology preferences than instructors and students of the fine arts and life sciences.

Situational ethics across borders: A multicultural examination

Managers throughout the world regularly face ethical dilemmas that have important, and perhaps complex, professional and personal implications. Further, societal consequences of decisions made can be far-reaching. In this study, 210 financial services managers from Australia, Chile, Ecuador and the United States were queried about their ethical beliefs when faced with four diverse dilemmas. In addition, the situational context was altered so the respondent viewed each dilemma from a top management position and from a position of economic hardship. Results suggest a complex interaction of situation, culture and issue when individuals make ethical judgments. Specifically, Chileans were found to have different beliefs about sex discrimination and child labor dilemmas when compared to their colleagues from the other three nations. Chileans and Australians also disagreed on the bribery dilemma. Anglo managers were more likely than Latin American managers to change their ethical responses when the situation was altered. For multinational firms interested in maintaining healthy ethical climates, the findings suggest that culturally contingent ethical guidelines, or policies adapted to the local customs, must be considered. Further, managers must remain aware of issues related to specific situations, both internal and external, that would cause subordinates to alter their moral judgment.

Planning for Growth: Life Stage Differences in Family Firms

Applying insights from the generational perspective, this study explores when strategic planning and succession planning are most conducive to privately held family firm growth. The results show that the degree to which strategic planning and succession planning are associated with family firm growth depends on the generation managing the firm. Both forms of planning are most conducive to the growth of first–generation firms; however, neither form of planning confers much growth for second–generation firms. For third–and–beyond–generation firms, the benefits of succession planning appear to reemerge. However, strategic planning is negatively associated with their level of growth.

Spinning Straw into Gold: the Tenuous Strategy, Funding, and Financial Performance Linkage:

This study investigates relationships between strategic process elements, sources of funding, and the growth and financial strategies pursued by 31 nonprofit social service organizations. Organizations were categorized on the basis of their achievement of a balanced budget and targeted funding goals. Based on these criteria, the most successful firms (a) maintained or developed a strong relatedness in program offerings; (b) were financially oriented, with a diverse funding base, and with fund-raising efforts targeting a specific source category for increase; (c) emphasized marketing; and (d) principally sought growth through increased client usage of current offerings. Less successful organizations appeared to lack key strategic management attributes regarding direction or execution.

The Facilitation and use of Student Teams in the Case Analysis Process

Cognitive psychology views learning as a problem-solving process, and the case method has evolved as an excellent mechanism for developing the critical thinking skills essential to effective decision making. Focusing upon the student-led approach to case teaching, we present a framework for helping students develop skills for improving the group case process. The intent of the approach is to increase interest in student-led presentations, from the perspectives of the presenting team and the audience. The focus is on providing an educational environment that allows students to develop the interpersonal, analytical, oral communication, and written communication skills demanded by contemporary organizations.

An uneasy alliance: planning and performance in nonprofit organizations

The research presented here contributes to our understanding of strategic planning and its relationship to performance in nonprofit organizations. Based on a sample of 303 nonprofit organizations, the study emphasizes individual and diverse elements of the planning process. Multiple measures of performance highlight a nonprofits need to garner resource contributions from several constituencies. Using factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis, we find a positive association between scope of planning and executive satisfaction and a negative association between administrative informality and volunteer involvement. Our results suggest that two critical resource contributors, executive directors and donors, may not value formalized decision-making and planning to the extent previously assumed.

Social Learning Theory: A Multicultural Study of Influences on Ethical Behavior.

We propose Social Learning Theory as a theoretical foundation for understanding the ethical standards of future business leaders. Using data drawn from students from 115 four-year undergraduate institutions in 36 different countries, the relationships among role models, capitalism, and laws were examined. The data suggest that future business leaders educated in environments espousing all moral philosophies except virtue ethics are influenced by their role models. However, differences in unethical behavior are found as related to the social influences of capitalism and laws.

The use, operation, and control of the small business computer

Abstract For the small business, the hope and promise of computerization is no longer a dream. It is reality. The overall purpose of this article is to explore the use, operation, and control of the small business computer. The article also reports the results of a survey indicating the perceptions of directors of Small Business Institutes (SBI) on the use, operation, and control of the small business computer. Routine processing, information, and decision support systems are explored. The impact of computer training and education and important staffing levels are discussed. Levels of satisfaction with the ability of computer systems to provide information and better products and services are also revealed. Satisfaction with existing hardware, personnel, and computer programs is also reported.