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*Family Business in Emerging, Developing, and Transitional Economies*

(To submit your paper to the EURAM 2017 Conference
<http://euramonline.org/annual-conference-2017.html> - Deadline 10th
January 2017)


Fang, H. (Missouri University of Science and Technology)

Vershinina, N. (University of Birmingham, UK)

Wale-Oshinowo, B (University of Lagos, Nigeria)

Welter, F. (Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Universityof Siegen, Germany

Chua, J. (University of Calgary, Canada - Lancaster University, UK Zhejiang
University, China)

Ramachandran, K. (Indian School of Business, India)

Discua Cruz, A. (Lancaster University, UK)

Basco, R. (American University of Sharjah - Sheikh Saoud
binKhalidbinKhalidAl-Qassimi ChairinFamilyBusiness,UAE*)*

Family business as a field of research has grown considerably over the last
two decades and its legitimacy has been bolstered by the interdisciplinary
connection with management, entrepreneurship, economics, psychology, and
sociology (Perez Rodriguez & Basco, 2011). Recent development in the
literature starts to recognize that family firms are heterogeneous in terms
of behavior and performance (Chua, Chrisman, Steier, & Rau, 2012). This
heterogeneity has been investigated in terms of many intra-organizational
sources such as age, size, founder or successor CEO, family generation in
control, founder gender, family or non-family CEO, family ownership
dispersion, intention for intra-family succession, among many others (e.g.,
Basco & Calabrò, 2016; Fang, Memili, Van de Graaff Randolph & Chrisman,
2016; Nordqvist, Sharma, & Chirico, 2014). In comparison,
extra-organizational sources have received significantly less attention
(Gupta, Levenburg, Moore, Motwani, & Schwarz, 2008).

One critical extra-organizational source is the historical, institutional,
spatial, and social context in which family firms exist and operate, as it
could influence the genesis, development, and continuity of family firms
(Stough, Welter, Block, Wennberg, & Basco, 2015; Wright, Chrisman, Chua, &
Steier, 2014). Among the many variations in contexts, a very important one
is that between developed economies and transitional, developing, or
emerging economies (Welter, 2011). Thus, examining how the
multidimensionality of the particular context in developing economies and
the intersectionality of the contextual elements affect family firm
behaviour and performance will contextualizing our theories of the family
firm (Whetten, 2009) and lead to a deeper and more generalizable
understanding of the family firm as a globally ubiquitous form of
organization.

Indeed, the extant literature’s focus on economically developed countries,
limits our understanding of the phenomenon because the institutional and
cultural contexts where family firms are founded, developed, and operated
differ substantially around the world. Therefore, the generalizability of
extant theories may be questioned. While recent studies have attempted to
address this issue by examining cultural and geographical factors as one
driving forces of family firm heterogeneity (Discua Cruz, Hamilton, & Jack,
2012; Gupta & Levenburg, 2010; Basco, 2015; Memili, Fang, Chrisman, & De
Massis, 2015), we still know little about family businesses in developing,
emerging, and transitional economies.

Therefore, we propose to develop a special track on Topics about Family
Business in Emerging, Developing, and Transition Economies (the definition
of such economies to be based on that used by the International Monetary
Fund). Through studies about how the specific economic and institutional
environments of such economies influence family firm behavior and
performance, the special track will help expand our understanding of family
business through the researchers’ findings about the applicability of
extant theories and empirical evidence from developed economies to family
firms in transitional, developing, and emerging economies. In addition,
this special track can help us develop newly grounded theories to achieve a
better understanding of the “contextual effect” on family business
behaviors and performances.

The main goal of the Family Business in Emerging, Developing, and
Transition Economies track is to encourage the presentation of studies
about family firms in such unique contexts related, but not limited, to:
  Traditional strategy research topics (such as internationalization,
corporate entrepreneurship, cooperation, competitive dynamics, economic and
non-economic performance, among others) but contextualized for family
business in emerging, developing, and transition economies.

Traditional family business research topics (such as succession, corporate
governance, inter-generational entrepreneurship, management practices among
other) but contextualized in emerging, developing and transition economies.

Cultural aspects that frame family and family business values, norms, and
ethics in emerging, developing, and transition economies.

Historical, sociological and anthropological perspectives to study family
businesses, family business groups and family elites in emerging,
developing, and transition economies.

The role of government policies in the start-up, development, or death of
family businesses in emerging, developing, and transition economies.

Strategies adopted by family businesses to counteract/compromise/comply
with institutional isomorphism in emerging, developing and transition
economies.

The economic and social impact of family businesses in emerging,
developing, and transition economies.

Comparative studies considering differences and similarities between family
businesses in developed and developing countries or among developing
countries.

 We expect the track “Family Business in Emerging, Developing, and
Transition Economies” to contribute to family business research in
different ways. First, replication studies in new contexts would enable the
generalization and potential expansion of current knowledge and research
findings. Second, by emphasizing the importance of environment, studies
would contextualize the relationship between family and firm and enrich our
understanding of the family business phenomenon. The aim is to shed some
light on how and why some theories would be more dominant than others in
specific contexts.

A workshop about “contextualizing family firms” will take place in EURAM
2017. The objectives of this workshop will focus on awareness, theories,
methods and existing works that highlight the relevance of context in the
study of family firms.




Rodrigo Basco, Ph.D.
The American University of Sharjah, UAE
Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business

Blog (english): Family Firm Blog <http://familyfirmblog.wordpress.com/>

Last post: Does SIZE really matter? – Family business and regional
development
<https://familyfirmblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/does-size-really-matter-family-business-and-regional-development/>
<http://bascorodrigo.blogspot.de/>

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