The Endurance of Family Businesses: A Global Overview - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107037751 ISBN 13: 9781107037755

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The Endurance of Family Businesses is a collection of essays offering an overview of the importance and resilience of family-controlled large businesses. Much of economic and business history research neglects family businesses, considering them an inefficient form of business organization. These essays discuss the strengths of family businesses: the ways family firms have managed, financed and governed their corporations, as well as the way in which they structure their relationship with the external environment, from the government to the company's stakeholders. Family businesses have learned new ways of organizing their resources and using their accumulated know-how for new markets and institutional environments. This volume combines the expertise of well-known scholars who specialize in business history, economic history, management and consulting, to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on family businesses. Contributors provide a global view by taking into account Asian, American and European experiences.

About this title

Review:

'Family business is everywhere but remains an elusive subject for researchers. The essays in this volume provide a refreshingly broad perspective by engaging deeply with the historical, global, cultural, and gender complexities involved in understanding this vibrant form of business ownership.' Geoffrey Jones, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School

'This volume provides a relevant contribution in the field of family business studies. Bringing together the longitudinal approach of traditional business history with the analytical focus of management studies, [it] provides an important overview of the most recent research in the study of family firms. The essays assembled here are particularly relevant for those interested in issues such as the evolution of the forms of big business enterprises and the longevity and endurance of family firms, as well as their management, ownership, and governance models. There are additional insights in the interdisciplinary debate concerning 'varieties of capitalism'. In short, this book can be labeled an essential instrument that will enhance our knowledge of the modern enterprise and the special role that family businesses play.' Franco Amatori, Bocconi University

'This book combines the research of business historians and management scholars to help us understand why, despite some critics' claims to the contrary, family businesses constitute an enduring form of organization. By exploring how family businesses from around the world have evolved in response to changing socioeconomic trends such as globalization, the convergence of gender roles, or the generalization of the availability of educational opportunities, the different chapters build on one another to support the editors' thesis that we are witnessing a 'global revolution' in the way that families manage and govern their businesses.' Belén Villalonga, NYU Stern School of Business

'Comprehensive and detailed, this is a definitive, up-to-date, scholarly resource for family business historians and field practitioners alike ... This book presents many interesting hypotheses and frameworks. It makes an excellent scholarly case for what business families and their advisors want and need: institutions that make more and bigger investments in the field of family business studies. In the past, critics claimed that only families in business stand to benefit from this research. The facts in this book put that argument to rest once and for all. A better understanding of family business will not only be good for every country where these economic activities thrive but will be essential for sustaining the global economy.' John A. Davis, Chairman, Cambridge Institute for Family Enterprise

Book Description:

The Endurance of Family Businesses offers an overview of the importance and resilience of family-controlled large businesses. This collection of essays discusses the strengths of family businesses: the ways family firms have managed, financed and governed their corporations, as well as the way in which they structure their relationship with the external environment.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1107037751
• ISBN 13: 9781107037755
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308
• Editor: Fernandez Perez Paloma, Colli Andrea