SBANC Newsletter
January
18, 2005
Issue
355-2005
QUOTE
"Most
new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers. They
will come from our smallest. We’ve got to do everything
we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.."
-- Ross Perot
FEATURE
PAPER
Factors in Family Business
Planning
This paper was presented
by Richard John Stapleton, from Georgia Southern University,
Deborah C. Stapleton, from Georgia Southern University, and
Meredith A. Tomlinson, from Winthrop University, at the November
2004 meeting of the Small Business Institute in Clearwater, Florida.
Does planning a family business entail not only planning
a business but also planning a family that will be involved in
the business? Or is the family part of the family business planned?
This paper includes a factor analysis of data generated by a 61-question
questionnaire mailed to 3,000 family business owners randomly dispersed
throughout the United States. The findings indicate that family
issues involved in managing family businesses become more important
the older and more established family businesses become but that
the contributions of children may be more crucial in first generation
businesses than in older generation businesses.
A fundamental part of script theory (Allen & Allen, 1988; Berne,
1970; Gioia & Poole, 1984; Lord & Kernan, 1987) is that
people create their own destiny to some extent by what they decide
when exposed to various messages about themselves and what they
should do when they are children. The script messages plus what
the individual decides about them gradually create a life script
with choreographed lines, places, and scenery. The individual would
attempt to find situations that would enable him to act out the
life script that had been partially laid down for him by his parents
and others and had been partially created by himself through his
decision-making at early ages. Stapleton and Murkison (1990) found
that entrepreneurs often create ideas for businesses several years
before they actually start the business, sometimes at very early
ages, as early
as 8 years old.
Part of the impetus for this research was to see if was possible
using business research methods to determine if script theory applied
to the scripting of families in small businesses. Assuming people
in general make up their minds about such things as what type of
person to marry, how many children to have, and who will be there
at the time of death (Berne, 1970),
it would seem logical that they might also make up their minds
at early ages about including spouses and children in family businesses.
In other words, do entrepreneurs and small business owners plan
to marry certain types of people who will be suitable as partners
in small businesses and do they plan to produce children who will
work in and perhaps inherit the family
business (Cates & Sussman, 1992; Clarke & Dawson, 1998;
Cohn, 1998; Doherty, 1997; Lea, 1991; Rawls, 1999; Walsh, 1985)?
Read the Entire Paper...
TIP
OF THE WEEK
Advantages of a Family
Business
Problems with family
firms can easily blind young people to the unique advantages
that come with participating in the business. The benefits associated
with family involvement should be recognized and discussed when
recruiting younger members to work in the family firm.
A primary benefit derives
from the strength of family relationships. Family members have
a unique motivation because the firm is a family firm. Business
success is also family success. Studies have shown, for example,
that family CEOs possess greater internal motivation than do
nonfamily CEOs and have less need to receive additional incentives
through compensation. CEOs, and other family members as well,
are drawn to the business because of family ties, and they tend
to stick with the business through thick and thin. A downturn
in business fortunes might cause nonfamily employees to seek
greener pastures elsewhere, but a son or daughter may be reluctant
to leave. The family name, the family welfare, and possibly the
family fortune are at stake. In addition, a person's reputation
in the family and in the business community maybe hinge on whether
she or he can continue the business that Mom or Grandfather built.
Family
members may also sacrifice income to keep a business going. Rather
than draw large salaries or high dividends, they are likely to
permit resources to remain in the business in order to meet current
needs. Many families have postponed the purchase of a new car
or new furniture long enough to let a business get started or
to get through a period of financial stress, thereby greatly
increasing the company's chances of survival.
Some
family businesses use the family theme in promotions, to distinguish
themselves from their competitors. Such promotional campaigns
often attempt to convey the fact that family-owned firms have
a strong commitment to the business, high ethical standards,
and a personal commitment to serving their customers and the
local community.
A
Texas funeral home, founded in 1925, strongly emphasizes the
family theme in its promotions. Here is a statement from its
promotional letter:
Now,
for the past 11 years the Funeral Home has been under the direction
of hatch Bailey, great-grandson and grandson of the founders.
Yes, this absolutely is a family serving families.
Does
it matter that Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey is Waco's Family-Owned
Funeral Home? We think it makes all the difference in the world.
The
letter then details the local roots, commitments, and longevity
of the family and its business. It is signed, appropriately,
by Hatch Bailey, Roberta Hatch Bailey, A.W. (Bill) Bailey, Jr.,
Wes Wilkirson Bailey, and Roy Bailey.
Other
features of family involvement in a firm can also contribute
to superior business performance. From their study of resource
management in family businesses, business professors David Sirmon
and Michael Hitt identified the following features of these firms
that can offer unique advantages:
- Firm-specific
knowledge. Family businesses often compete using firm-specific
knowledge that is best shared and further developed by individuals
who care deeply about the business and who trust one another.
- Shared
social networks. Family members bring valuable social
capital to the business when they are their networks with
younger members of the family and thus help to ensure the
firm's future performance.
- A focus
on the long run. Family managers can take a long-range
perspective more easily than can corporate managers who are
being judged on year-to-year--or even quarterly--results.
- Preservation
of the firm's reputation. because they have a stake
in preserving the reputation of the family, family members
are likely to maintain high standards when it comes to honesty
in business dealings and other matters, such as offering
quality and value to the customer.
- Reduced
cost of control. Because key employees in a family business
are related and trust one another, the firm can spend less
on systems designed to reduce theft and to monitor employees'
work habits.
Longenecker,
J., Moore, C., Petty, J., & Palich, L. 2005. "Small
Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis," p. 98-99.
Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
CONFERENCES
Symposium on
Challenges in the Internet and Interdisciplinary Research
The organization of Internet, Processing, Systems, and Interdisciplinaries (IPSI)
will be holding a Symposium on Challenges in the Internet and Interdisciplinary
Research at Hotel Santa Caterina in Amalfi, Italy, February 17-20, 2005.
For more information, visit: http://amalfi2005.internetconferences.net/
TDWI World
Conference
The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), a division of 101communications, is
the premier provider of in-depth, high-quality education and research in the
business
intelligence (BI) and data
warehousing (DW) industry. TDWI will be holding its first World Conference
of 2005 at The Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 27-March 4, 2005. TDWI
will present a unique combination of full-day training, best practices, one-to-one
consulting, peer networking, certification, and demos on the newest product
solutions.
For more information, visit: http://tdwi.org/education/conferences/lasvegas2005/index.aspx
ACME Annual
Conference
The Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators (ACME) will hold its Annual
Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas, USA, March 1-5, 2005. For
the 2005 ACME conference, the association has established relationships with
several journals such as: Journal of Marketing Channels, Health Marketing Quarterly,
Hospital Topics, and Journal of Hospital Marketing and Public Relations, which
will consider select papers presented at the conference and published in the
for a fast track review. Editors of SIX different journals have already been
lined up to serve on the “Meet the Editors” panel for this conference
providing authors a wonderful networking opportunity.
For more information, visit: http://a-cme.org/2005%20Conference/CFP%20for%202005%20ACME.pdf
Conference
on Global Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation
The Second Annual Conference on Global Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation
will be held April 20-22, 2005 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Conference is hosted by East Tennessee State University's Bureau of Business
and Economic Research & the Office of Professional Development.
For more information, visit: http://business.etsu.edu/Bureau/International_Conference_on_Entrepreneurship_and_Business_Incubation.htm
CALL
FOR PAPERS
Atlantic Marketing
Association
The Atlantic Marketing Association will hold its Annual Meeting at the Hawthorne
Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts, USA on September 28-October 1, 2005.
Submission Deadline: April 18, 2005
For more information, visit: http://www.atlanticmarketing.org/
Pan-Pacific
Business Association
The Pan-Pacific Business Association (PPBA) will hold the Pan-Pacific Conference
XXII, titled "The e-Global Age, New Economy, and China: A Close Up" in
Shanghai, China on May 25-27, 2005. Topics for invited papers include: Chinese
economy and management systems, Pan-Pacific business activities and international
trade, Global project management, Educational reforms for the 21st Century,
and more.
Submission Deadline: January 21, 2005
For more information, visit: http://www.cba.unl.edu/outreach/ppba/2005CallForPapers.pdf
IPSI-2005 France
IPSI is holding a Symposium on Challenges in the Internet and Interdisciplinary
Research at the Hotel De La Cite in Carcassonne, France on April 23-26,
2005. Topic areas include: Education, Computer science and engineering,
B2B, B2C, E-Business Management, and more.
Submission Deadline: February 10, 2005.
For more information, visit: http://www.internetconferences.net/france2005/index.html
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Preeminent
International Undergraduate Business Plan Competition
The Midwest Entrepreneurial Education Center at
Ball State University is holding its 8th annual Enterprise Creation
Competition at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, USA on
March 18-19, 2005. The first place team will win $7,500. The Enterprise
Creation Competition gives undergraduate students the opportunity
to develop business ventures that demonstrate the ability to be
successfully launched.
For more information, visit: http://www.bsu.edu/web/entrepreneurship/resource/pdf/2004_ecc.pdf
Cook School of Business Seeks
Director
The Cook School of Business is searching for a Director for the Jefferson Smurfit
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The Center is one of the oldest entrepreneurship
centers in the country and recipient of several major awards for its programs
and innovations. The focus for the Director will be not only program development
and administration, but also building local networks and fund raising. For
that reason it is considered likely that the person hired would be local, however,
extraordinarily qualified candidates from elsewhere would certainly be considered.
For more information, visit: http://www.slu.edu/jobs/job_details.php?i=8202&d=1727jd
The SBANC Newsletter is provided as
a service to the members of our affiliates: Academy
of Collegiate Marketing Educators (ACME), Association for Small
Business& Entrepreneurship (ASBE), Decision Sciences
Institute (DSI), Federation of Business
Disciplines (FBD), International Council for Small Business Congress
(ICSB), Institute
for Supply Management, The International Small Business Congress
(ISBC), Marketing Management Association (MMA), Small Business
Administration
(SBA), Service Corps of Retired Executives, Small Business Institute
(SBI), Society for
Marketing Advances (SMA), United States Association for Small Business& Entrepreneurship
(USASBE), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Western
Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI). If you are interested in membership
or would like
further information on one of our affiliates, please see our web
site at
http://www.sbaer.uca.edu
SBANC STAFF
Main Office Phone: (501) 450-5300
Dr. Don B. Bradley III, Executive
Director of SBANC & Professor
of Marketing
Direct Phone: (501) 450-5345, E-mail: donb@uca.edu
Esther
Mead, Co-Lead Development Director, E-mail: estherledelle@yahoo.com
Amanda Harris, Development Intern,
E-mail: abharris84@yahoo.com
Jesse Holmes, Development Intern, E-mail wags4pets@yahoo.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the SBANC
Newsletter, please E-mail SBANC at sbanc@uca.edu
