Small Enterprise Research Journal
ISSN 1321-5906
Guest Editors:
- Professor Mary Barrett, University of Wollongong
- Associate Professor Keith Duncan, Bond University
Despite
their ubiquity in virtually all countries, the growing research
interest in their special characteristics, and their long history,
family controlled companies rarely figure in the standard models of
business functions presented to students and others seeking an
understanding of how businesses work. Yet family firms have been
estimated to contribute between 70% and 90% of business activity and
employment worldwide. To counter this situation, Small Enterprise
Research invites papers which consider new work related to the theme:
Business Functions in Family Controlled Companies. Both empirical and
conceptual papers are welcome.
Topics for papers could include:
PEOPLE
- Managing family and non family employees – succession and skill development issues
- How non-family employees perceive family employees – implications for hiring, firing and reward structures
MARKETING
- Loyalty to family firms – implications of internet commerce and world competitiveness
- The family business brand – building, marketing, customer perceptions and valuing
- Emerging media in marketing in small and family businesses
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
- Do family firms rely on informal or formal management information systems?
INNOVATION, OPERATIONS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- Productivity and innovation issues in family business v non-family business
STRATEGY and STRUCTURE
- Family strategy v business strategy – serving two masters?
- Do family businesses evolve or are they designed?
GOVERNANCE
- Succession and governance – management structures and planning in family business
- Is family control and management a substitute for governance?
- Family business culture – is entrepreneurial thinking taught or in the DNA?
OTHER ISSUES
- New theoretical approaches to understanding business functions in family firms
- Dilemmas for consultants to family firms
- Insights from non-Western countries and indigenous perspectives on family business functions
All papers will be double-blind reviewed by experts in the family business field.
The
Australian Centre for Family Business (ACFB) at Bond University is
sponsoring a prize for the best paper published in the special issue.
The prize is AUS$1500, which can be spent at the discretion of the
winner on research resources or research related travel (including
conference travel). Arrangements can be made to deposit the prize money
into the relevant research account/s at the winner’s university or other
institution. In addition, the winner will receive from the Small
Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand (SEAANZ) a year’s
free membership of the association, and complimentary registration to
its 2013 conference (11-12 July, in Sydney). If the prize is awarded to a
paper with two or more authors, the value of the prize will be shared
amongst the winners.
Intending participants are
invited in the first instance to send a 1-2 page long Expression of
Interest outlining their topic, method of research, and basic findings
to the Editor in Chief of the journal, Dr Kate Lewis: K.V.Lewis@massey.ac.nz
The following timeline will be followed in producing the special issue:
- Expressions of interest due: 30 June 2012
- Responses to expressions of interest by: 31 July 2012
- Full papers due: 30 November 2012
- Reviewers’ comments on full papers by: 31 January 2013
- Final submissions due: 31 March 2013
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