Anneleen Michiels, Lorraine Uhlaner and Julie Dekker
The topic of dividend policies of private family-controlled firms has aroused the interest of corporate finance and governance scholars and practitioners alike. However, a lot of…
Abstract
Purpose
The topic of dividend policies of private family-controlled firms has aroused the interest of corporate finance and governance scholars and practitioners alike. However, a lot of questions concerning the dividends in privately held family firms remain unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a private family firm’s dividend payout is influenced by its degree of professionalization.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 492 small to medium-sized Belgian family-controlled businesses with Tobit regression models.
Findings
The results show that professionalized family-controlled firms pay higher dividends to their shareholders than do less-professionalized firms. In particular, the use of financial control systems, non-family involvement in governance systems, and the use of human resource control systems have a positive significant impact on the average level of dividend payout.
Practical implications
This study may be of interest to family business consultants and (potential) investors, as the results contradict the assumption that family businesses (especially those privately held) will always have a no or low dividend policy.
Originality/value
Investigating dividend payout in the context of other components than family ownership (in this case, professionalization) can broaden our understanding of dividend payout.
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Tensie Steijvers, Nadine Lybaert and Julie Dekker
The importance of formal human resource (HR) practices is widely recognized in management literature, but under-researched in the small business and family firm domain. Previous…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of formal human resource (HR) practices is widely recognized in management literature, but under-researched in the small business and family firm domain. Previous research indicates that family firms rely more on informal HR practices, based on social networks. However, given the heterogeneity of family firms, one cannot assume that all family firms are reluctant to formalize their HR. As the CEO is the key decision maker who covers HR management in family firms, the effect of the CEO type on formal HR practices will be studied. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a large-scale survey, resulting in a response of 532 family SMEs, the authors perform a hierarchical regression analysis studying the effect of a family/nonfamily CEO on the use of formal HR practices, introducing several moderating effects: CEO generational stage, tenure and education.
Findings
Results indicate that family firms with a family CEO have more formal HR practices than those managed by a nonfamily CEO due to higher levels of goal alignment and intentional trust between the owning family and family CEO. Moreover, family firms managed by first generation family CEOs and family CEOs with a higher education have more formal HR practices.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that family CEOs can be equally or even more able as nonfamily CEOs to run a family firm in a formalized/professionalized manner.
Originality/value
Given the scant amount of research on HR formalization in family firms, even though literature documents performance increasing effects, this study fulfils the need to study the effect of the CEO on HR formalization.
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Gülçin Polat and Serap Benligiray
This study aims to broaden the multidimensional conceptualization of family business professionalization, and to investigate how professionalization influences the financial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to broaden the multidimensional conceptualization of family business professionalization, and to investigate how professionalization influences the financial performance of family firms, in the context of private family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a quantitative research approach, the study empirically examines the effect of professionalization on family firm performance, using a sample of 111 privately held Turkish family firms. The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and the independent samples t-test.
Findings
The results indicate that the professionalization of family businesses has a positive effect on their financial performance, and the professionalization of employees is the prominent dimension of professionalization in this effect.
Research limitations/implications
This study advances the understanding of how professionalization influences family firm performance by providing additional empirical evidence regarding the positive influence of multifaceted family business professionalization on financial performance.
Practical implications
The professionalization framework depicted in this study helps owners, managers, or consultants of family businesses assess the professionalization level of their firm and understand the performance effects of each of the family business professionalization dimensions on financial performance. It can also serve as a roadmap for family firms to professionalize and achieve better performance.
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies, this study incorporates employees, organizational culture and work environment, often neglected in the family business literature, into the multidimensional family business professionalization construct, thus extending previous research. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between family businesses professionalization and firm performance.
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Samuel B. Sheps and Karen Cardiff
The aim of this review is to examine factors that may explain why other industries are considered ultrasafe while progress toward preventing adverse events in health care is not…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this review is to examine factors that may explain why other industries are considered ultrasafe while progress toward preventing adverse events in health care is not considered to have reached that level.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a narrative review.
Findings
Despite a decade of intense effort, the problem of patient harm in health care facilities remains a challenge. A recent study of ten hospitals in North Carolina, which have actively engaged in patient safety initiatives, reported rates of adverse events similar to those in the Institute of Medicine report, To Err Is Human in 1999. Seven key issues and their interaction are described.
Research limitations/implications
This review focuses on broad issues that likely impede progress generally, not on individual project or individual hospital program success stories.
Originality/value
The authors believe the difficulty in making significant headway on the patient safety agenda is due in part to the fact that it was always going to be a long (indeed never ending) struggle – aviation for example took almost 60 years to become ultra‐safe – and in part to misunderstanding the nature of the dynamics that are involved in the generation of adverse events in risk critical industries. The paper reflects on the nature of the safety initiatives that health care has tended to focus on, but which have not sufficiently taken note of central concepts of safety science, as well as on features of the health care system itself that have impeded, in the authors' view, progress on enhancing patient safety.
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Julie Krogh Agergaard, Kristoffer Vandrup Sigsgaard, Niels Henrik Mortensen, Jingrui Ge and Kasper Barslund Hansen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of early-stage maintenance clustering. Few researchers have previously studied early-stage maintenance clustering…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of early-stage maintenance clustering. Few researchers have previously studied early-stage maintenance clustering. Experience from product and service development has shown that early stages are critical to the development process, as most decisions are made during these stages. Similarly, most maintenance decisions are made during the early stages of maintenance development. Developing maintenance for clustering is expected to increase the potential of clustering.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature study and three case studies using the same data set were performed. The case studies simulate three stages of maintenance development by clustering based on the changes available at each given stage.
Findings
The study indicates an increased impact of maintenance clustering when clustering already in the first maintenance development stage. By performing clustering during the identification phase, 4.6% of the planned work hours can be saved. When clustering is done in the planning phase, 2.7% of the planned work hours can be saved. When planning is done in the scheduling phase, 2.4% of the planned work hours can be saved. The major difference in potential from the identification to the scheduling phase came from avoiding duplicate, unnecessary and erroneous work.
Originality/value
The findings from this study indicate a need for more studies on early-stage maintenance clustering, as few others have studied this.
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Nathan Keates and Julie Beadle-Brown
Previous studies have confirmed the potential benefits of participating in theatrical improvisation, including improved mental health, well-being, skills and strategy development…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies have confirmed the potential benefits of participating in theatrical improvisation, including improved mental health, well-being, skills and strategy development. This study aims to explore the experiences of improv (a subset of theatrical improvisation) for autistic, non-autistic, yet neurodivergent and neurotypical people. In particular, it explores whether participants believe that there have been any benefits from participating in improv.
Design/methodology/approach
Twenty adult participants were recruited using snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and qualitative content analysis (QCA). IPA explored the autistic lived experience during improv participation, while QCA sought to identify the benefits gained.
Findings
Implementing IPA allowed for the benefits of improv to be embedded into autistic lived experience. This was aggregated into two themes: “life beyond improv” and “social worlds negative impact”. Findings from QCA found five themes: “creativity and opportunities: the arts and workplace”; “acceptance, cognitive flexibility and rolling with it”; “interpersonal, social and communication skills and human connection”; “gains in mental health, quality of life and wellbeing”; and for just autistic participants, “‘I've gone full autistic’ (and can learn why neurotypicals are like they are)”.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a novel study area that has not been investigated previously.
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Lei Huang and Julie Fitzpatrick
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of donation amount and framing on financial products, this research investigates consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of donation amount and framing on financial products, this research investigates consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward cause-related credit cards with different donation sizes and framing types.
Design/methodology/approach
This research investigates consumers’ perceptions of green credit cards using two experiments with a between-subject design (n =297) and a mixed design (n =238), respectively. All the participants, recruited from a major state university in the USA, are undergraduate students who use credit cards.
Findings
A medium-size donation optimizes the outcome of a cause-related credit card offer. Moreover, a donation framed as cash rewards has stronger effects on a consumer’s perception and consequent reactions to the “green” credit cards than an annual percentage rate framing. Finally, consumers with high levels of environmental concern and propensity to volunteer have stronger intention to adopt and are more likely to recommend the proposed credit card.
Originality/value
Building upon the theories of social exchange and symbolic interaction, this research is the first to provide empirical evidence regarding the application of volunteerism and perceived consumer effectiveness for financial institutions and their cause-related marketing campaign partners in selecting suitable environmental causes.
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Michael A. Piel, Karen K. Johnson and Karen Putnam
In a past era, alchemists believed they could magically transmute lead into valuable gold. Science has progressed a substantial distance since then and for decades nuclear and…
Abstract
In a past era, alchemists believed they could magically transmute lead into valuable gold. Science has progressed a substantial distance since then and for decades nuclear and particle physicists could change various materials into gold. When considering technology, leaders are faced with a comparable challenge: How does one leverage technology to create unique organizational value? To manage emerging technologies effectively to create organizational value, managers will need to lead the producers and practitioners of technology effectively. In the age of global interdependence, organizations must abandon old outdated perspectives.
Technology is a force which drives itself. Organizations must adopt to emerging technology or risk being obsolete. Leveraging technology to create value involves more then circumferentially managing technology. To create value, leaders must encourage staff to transmute technology. The principles and practices of quantum leadership provide for this possibility. This chapter will irradiate why simply managing technology does not offer organizations the maximum value from technology. The reader will be introduced to the four core features of quantum leadership: duality, superposition, entanglement, and observation. With this groundwork, the principles and practices of this leadership perspective will be discussed in context of transmuting technology into unique organizational value. Which lens one uses to see which possibility becomes reality are exclusively in the eyes of the viewer. Using information systems technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G technology as the exemplars, readers can decide whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgement on using quantum leadership as the perspective to transmute technology into valuable organizational gold.
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The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the…
Abstract
The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.
– The purpose of this survey is to find a significant sample of reference resources for electrical engineering as they are presented in subject-specific LibGuides.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this survey is to find a significant sample of reference resources for electrical engineering as they are presented in subject-specific LibGuides.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey is based on a detailed observation and collection of sources designated as Reference Resources in LibGuides, titles found were compiled and organized.
Findings
The results are substantial; they offered a body of specialized resources, which includes e-book collections, dictionaries, handbooks, encyclopedias and other resources that are important to electrical engineering students and researchers.
Research limitations/implications
A considerable amount of resources were found; nevertheless, they represent the resources found in a randomly selected sample of LibGuides; therefore, the result is limited to the group of libraries selected.
Practical implications
The results of this survey are valuable to subject librarians interested in comparing resources with a pool of libraries and to discover titles that can be of interest to their collections.
Originality/value
The work is original, as this is the first paper publishing the results of a survey of electrical engineering guides.