Wilson Ng

‘Helping the family’: The mediating role of outside directors in ethnic Chinese family firms

This article explores the nature and process of non-executive director (NED or non-executive) influence in quoted, familycontrolled firms (FCFs) through two company case studies in Singapore. Existing views of the non-executive role in such firms have been derived from theory, with traditional and ‘new’ agency approaches and resource dependence theory each offering differing prescriptions of the role. The article reviews this literature and suggests the potential value of qualitative research for understanding and reconciling competing prescriptions of the NED role. It then presents two case studies which explore the processes whereby independent non-executives seek to influence decision-making during critical incidents in the life of two FCFs. Based on these cases the article critiques the zero-sum view of power and the ‘nuclear’ conception of the family that informs much of the suspicious and hostile perspective of family control held by some agency scholars. In contrast, the article argues for a relational conception of power through which NEDs, despite the reality of family power and control, achieve effective influence through playing a vital mediating role in a web of firm and family relationships. This involves NEDs in defending the collective interest in the continuity of an ‘extended’ family of the firm against the damaging intrusion of ‘family altruism’ and managerial opportunism. Such a role can augment the authority of nonexecutives and the board whilst allowing necessary changes to be implemented.

Growing beyond smallness: How do small, closely controlled firms survive?

This research note on a family-controlled firm in Singapore suggests how such businesses, in competitive industries, may grow and survive. Located in the literature on small firm growth, we explore a corporate incident that threatened the survival of the firm under study. An analysis of the manner in which the firm’s managers responded to this threat by developing and launching a new core business, without external intervention, forms the basis of the scholarly contribution of the case. It illustrates how a corporate incident can draw the attention of core shareholders to their need to address specific business and management issues and make subtle organizational changes that ensure the firm’s survival under close control.

Not Another Study of Great Leaders: Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Mid-Sized Family Firm for its Further Growth and Development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and process of leadership in a mid-sized, family-controlled bank in Singapore in order to understand how it grew and developed under family control. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on distributed leadership as a theoretical framework in exploring how a major corporate acquisition was conceived and undertaken to advance the banks growth and development. Data were obtained through structured interviews with managers based on a three-part discussion protocol following a pre-interview questionnaire. Findings – An “extended” system of leadership involving different levels of managers is developed that successfully completed the acquisition and produced significant growth from the combined businesses. Research limitations/implications – Based on a single case, the paper does not claim that the observed phenomena are typical of mid-sized family-controlled businesses (FCBs). However, for scholars, the paper suggests how studying leadership practice in such FCBs may produce insights that challenge the popular view of an all-powerful family leader by substituting a more nuanced perspective of a collaborative leadership system that facilitates entrepreneurial activity down the firm. Practical implications – For managers, the study suggests how deeply developed collaboration among different levels of managers may produce competitive advantage for FCBs that seek further growth and development. Social implications – It is suggested how further research of the growth processes of mid-sized FCBs may maximize the value of entrepreneurial opportunities for their “extended” family of stakeholders, specifically for their customers with whom FCBs typically enjoy close relations. Originality/value – The paper fills an empirical gap in the literature on competitive, mid-sized FCBs by articulating a process in which a unique competency is developed for their ongoing survival as a family-controlled enterprise.

Against economic (mis)conceptions of the individual: Constructing financial agency in the credit crisis

This paper draws upon the work of Lacan and Callon to interrogate and disrupt the foundational belief of neo-classical economics in the rationality and autonomy of the individual. Lacans account of the egos foundation in the ‘imaginary’ explains how the self may be grasped as if it were indeed autonomous and rational, but also what is ‘fictional’ about this image. Following Lacan, the credit crisis is explored in terms of the narcissism, paranoia and contempt for the law that in practice characterised the conduct of what economics celebrates as the rational individual. The paper then draws upon Callons notion of performativity to explore the ways in which economics, and in particular its assumptions about incentives, came to make a reality of the fiction of the ‘rational’ individual. We suggest that widely adopted incentive pay practices, designed in line with agency assumptions, produced the very self-interested opportunism that they assumed ex ante.

How small family-owned businesses may compete with retail superstores : Tacit knowledge and perceptive concordance among owner-managers and customers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the “perceptive concordance” – the proximity of perceptions of the business- between key managers and customers of two small family-owned and managed businesses (“FBs”) and two larger non-FBs in Cagliari, Italy as a preliminary basis for understanding how small retail businesses that are typically family owned have continued to compete and thrive in many Western European cities. Design/methodology/approach – The authors asked how small FBs have been able to compete in an advanced European economy despite apparent competitive disadvantages relative to large superstores selling the same products. In addressing this question the authors drew on a qualitative research methodology in which the authors interviewed senior managers and surveyed customers of the four businesses and applied an original statistical model to assess the degree of their perceptive concordance with over 100 customers of each business. Findings – The studys findings suggest a significant...

Debate: Too close for comfort? Regulation and governance of the UK’s nuclear industry and implications for inter-generational equity

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Making Sense of Sovereign Wealth Funds: Entrepreneurial and Political Wish-Images in ‘Building for the Future’ of China and Singapore

We explore the nature of two of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) by making sense of two of their controversial investments in US financial institutions. Drawing on core Benjaminian themes, we present an alternative view to purely financial accounts of those investments in terms of an unresolved struggle for influence between contrasting ‘wish-images’ – partly fulfilled ambitions that are shaped by the image holder’s social experiences of nation-building and entrepreneurial reward-seeking in China and Singapore. While this struggle exposes the complex nature of our SWFs, we suggest how our reflections have unexpected implications for their development. Where Benjamin welcomed a ‘critical state’ in which hitherto ignored social experiences may exert a positive influence on social development, the critical state of both SWFs having ‘recovered’ an entrepreneurial dimension for investing has become entangled with, and may damage, their central purpose as sovereign investment houses.

Developments in India’s Corporate Governance: Their Relevance for UK Financial Firms

While the UK government have sought to promote the nation’s financial services in India, City firms have shown little business awareness of Indian firms today. Unsurprisingly, there have been few recent deals between City firms and their Indian counterparts. Over a few decades, the competitive advantage that City institutions established through their historical relationships in major Indian cities such as Mumbai has been eroded by the development of competing expertise from non-UK financial services. However, we report that a number of Indian financial firms remain sympathetic to collaborating with their UK counterparts. To recapture this competitive advantage would require City firms to adopt a different approach to doing business in India. This approach would involve financial firms getting close to their Indian counterparts to understand the changes that are taking place in India’s processes of decision making.