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The present paper aims at exploring effective business model adaptations in response to unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors test the effect of two major business model adaptations, namely changes in the value proposition and changes in the target market, on a sample of 96 family SMEs.

Results show that only changes in the value proposition had a positive and significant impact on performance, helping family SMEs to better confront COVID-19. However, this effect is reduced in the case of target market change.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate how business model adaptations in family SMEs affect performance in crisis situations.

This paper explores the drivers and inhibitors of the transition of entrepreneurial family firms from small to large firms. We adopt two contrasting theoretical perspectives, i.e. agency and stewardship, to explore the effects of family power on size transition.

We adopted an original research design that leverages a unique longitudinal database built starting from the list of the 500 best Italian manufacturing family firms published by the AUB Monitor in 2018. Specifically, we tested our hypotheses using a comprehensive set of financial and governance data from 89 Italian manufacturing family firms covering a 10-year period. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a survival analysis using a Cox regression.

We find an inverted U-shaped relationship between family involvement in ownership and size transition: size transition is more likely to happen at intermediate levels of family involvement in ownership. Additionally, our analysis shows that family involvement in the board of directors negatively impacts size transition, while the presence of a family CEO has a positive influence.

To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first exploration of the phenomenon of size transition within entrepreneurial family firms. We believe it was worthwhile for two reasons. First, small size is frequently regarded as a weakness when competing in international markets, investing in R&D, or rewarding shareholders. Second, since small family firms are the major contributors to the world economy, understanding the factors that facilitate their transition to large firms can have a significant impact on overall economic development and prosperity.

Income from investment properties can fluctuate depending on the state of the economy. The idea that there is always a potential exit (sale) value whenever the property stops performing at its optimum or deflation in the economy will always appeal to investors. To determine housing prices, investors would rely on a direct comparison approach (DCA) of recent substitute sales in the open market. Appraisers use this approach to develop an opinion of value when there is a plethora of recent sales to analyse.

The study was designed to establish the use of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach as a support tool for deciding property appraisals. A case study of an industrial single-storey stand-alone building with grade-level parking in the south-east of Calgary, Canada, was investigated with the AHP approach. The result was cross-referenced with the DCA.

Using a consistency index of 0.077321 and a consistency ratio of 0.085912, the matrix multiplication was determined to be 0.456706. The average valuations derived from the adjusted price per square foot using the direct comparison method and the unadjusted price per square foot using the AHP were deemed the best value estimate in the light of available comparables. The implications of the findings suggest that AHP, as a quantitative technique, can support and validate the use of similar non-recent sale comparables when appraising investment properties with the DCA.

AHP is an alternative aid in quantitatively deciding the most significant value attribute for comparison before subjective adjustments. When intuitively applied in the DCA, these subjective adjustments almost always lead to an overvaluation of properties.