Although understudied in emerging markets, in modern globalised economies, family business internationalization is becoming an increasingly more relevant topic. Consequently, our research focuses on investigating the listed family firms in Chinese Mainland in order to fill the research gap. Specifically, we studied the influence of family involvement in ownership and management of companies on their degree of internationalization. Existing theories on internationalization mainly focused on economic aspects, while we adopt the perspective of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) which refers to non economic aspects to investigate this subject. We take listed family firms in Chinese Mainland as our sample. The results show that family involvement in ownership is positively associated with the degree of internationalization and family involvement in management has no certain relation with the degree of internationalization. This is a different finding in this area since previous researches have not taken Chinese listed family firms as samples before. Future research can improve the SEW theory by testing wider samples.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in modern business society but still face difficulties in debt financing. Literatures suggest that family involvement and external auditing can assist small firms to mitigate agency problems that impede the access to loans, and the liability of newness could be a factor in small business debt financing. Our research examines how family involvement affects cost of debt upon the different choices on external auditing, and how the liability of newness works. We find when engaging external auditing, family involvement is not a significant influencer in reducing the cost of debt for small businesses. Besides, when the external auditing is not engaged, family involvement becomes a significant influencer. We also find that when external auditing is not engaged, family involvement works in reducing the cost of debt only when the liability of newness is a factor.

Background: Today’s business environment is characterized by high competitiveness and fast-changing markets. Moreover, useful knowledge and expertise cannot only be found within a company but also outside the organizational boundaries. Therefore, a shift from closed and internal R&D processes to open and collaborative innovations with external sources can be noted in order to stay competitive.   Purpose: The concept of open innovation is well researched by various scholars in the context of large organizations and SMEs. However, the link to family firms is often missing and under researched. Resulting of the importance of the “how” component in family firm research, it is interesting to see how family firms actually implement the concept of open innovation and how it is influenced by unique family firm characteristics. Therefore, this study sheds light on how the family involvement affects the implementation of open innovation.   Method: We want to contribute to the theory with an exploratory research design and a multiple case-study method of eight selected family firms. Through semi-structured interviews with four family managers and four non-family managers, we gained insights from the organizational level concerning their open innovation strategy and implementation process. We used a cross-case analysis to compare the cases and indicate similarities and differences in order to draw our conclusions.   Conclusion: In general, the owning family is significantly important and influential for the open innovation strategy. First, family firms with family CEOs used open innovation as a response to internal drivers, however with non-family CEOs in charge internal and external forces are the drivers for an open innovation strategy. Second, families that are engaged in daily operations, execute an informal implementation process with loose communication practices, whereas family firms with an external CEO apply a formal implementation process. Additionally to this, we point out two managerial implications: open innovation needs to be embedded in the organizational culture and managers need to lead by example when implementing the concept.

In this dissertation, Essay 1 draws upon agency theory and corporate governance to classify control enhancing corporate governance provisions and to examine the use of these provisions within the context of publicly traded family firms. I argue that publicly traded family firms will differ from publicly traded nonfamily firms in terms of the frequency of the use of different types of control enhancing governance provisions. Specifically, I argue that family ownership will influence the frequency of the use of provisions and family management will moderate the relationships between family ownership and the frequency of the use of governance provisions. I develop and test the hypotheses on a sample of 386 of S&P500 firms. Findings do not support the hypothesized relationships. A rationale for the non-significant relationships is also provided. In Essay 2, drawing upon agency theory and the extant family governance literature, I examine the link between family involvement, the use of governance provisions, and firm performance. I suggest that the frequency of the use of different types of control enhancing governance provisions differentially influence the relationship between family involvement (i.e. family ownership and family management) in the business and firm performance. I develop and test the hypotheses on 386 of the S&P500 firms. Findings support the hypotheses suggesting the moderation effects of (a) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting controlling owners in terms of their sustainability of controlling status on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family ownership and firm performance, (b) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting management legally on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family ownership and firm performance, (c) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting controlling owners in terms of their voting rights on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance, (d) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting noncontrolling owners on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance, and (e) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting management monetarily on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance. Finally, results, future research directions, and implications for practice are discussed.

In 2005, the nation's minority groups totaled 98 million, or 33% of the country's total population. According to the U.S Census Bureau News (2007), Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority group in the country with 14.8% of the total population and 44% of the minority population. The same report indicated that the Hispanic population accounted for almost half (48%) of the national population growth between 2005 and 2006, yet, students from minority backgrounds, including ethnically diverse students for whom English is their second language, exhibit lower academic achievement when compared to the majority group (Lyon et al., 2001). Low academic achievement among students from minority backgrounds can influence their school placement. Approximately 37% of all students receiving special education services in 2002 were ethnically diverse (National Center of Educational Statistics, 2002). Concerned with the significant gap between the achievement of children from minority backgrounds and students from the majority group, Congress amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2001. NCLB requires public schools to demonstrate acceptable progress for all students, including those who are culturally and linguistically diverse and those with disabilities. NCLB also promotes and supports greater parent involvement (Wright, Wright, & Heath, 2004) and requires schools to report on students' progress by subgroup (i.e., ethnicity, disability, English language learners, and low-income). Because the majority of students from diverse ethnic backgrounds are Hispanic (Capps, Fix, Murray, Ost, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005), a high percentage of students with disabilities are from minority groups (Hosp & Reschly, 2004), about 77% of English language learners are from Hispanic descent (Klingner, Artiles, & Barletta, 2006), and approximately half of school-age children of immigrants are from low-income homes (Hernandez, 2004), it is important for schools to take a closer look at the specific needs of Hispanic families of children with disabilities in order to promote their participation in the education of their children. The purpose of this study was to research the influence of components incorporated into a series of workshops specifically designed for Hispanic families of children with disabilities and to study the effect that participating in the workshops would have on parents' knowledge about their children's Individualized Education Program (IEP) and on their level of involvement in their children's education. TENFEE: Talleres en Español para las Necesidades de Familias en Educacion Especial (Spanish Workshops for the Needs of Families in Special Education) delivered five workshops where a series of components were provided to counteract the most frequently identified barriers in the involvement of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) parents in the education of their children with special needs: (a) complexity of disability, (b) language barriers, (c) cultural differences, and (d) socioeconomic status (Fix & Passel, 2003; Kalyanpur & Harry, 2004; Quezada, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2003). Thirty-seven parents or primary caregivers of students receiving special education services in three school districts in central Florida participated in the study. Before and after the workshops, participants completed a three-part survey in which they gave demographic information, responded to 50 multiple choice test questions related to the IEP process, and answered 10 open-ended questions related to their involvement in their children's education. Participants also completed an evaluation at each of the workshops indicating which of the workshop's components influenced their decision to participate. Finally, participants' children's teachers completed the Parent/Family Involvement Index (P/FII) before and after participating in the workshops. The P/FII is a measure of parent involvement in their children's special education services as perceived by their children's teachers. Following data collection, quantitative statistical analysis was completed using descriptive statistics to examine if TENFEE's components supported the participation of the targeted population to the workshops. A Paired Sample t-test was calculated to evaluate any differences in participants' IEP knowledge survey test scores before and after the workshops as well as differences in teachers' P/FII scores before and after the workshops. Multiple Regressions were conducted to determine if participants' demographic characteristics influenced IEP knowledge survey test scores and/or P/FII scores.

Recently within the juvenile justice system there has been a great deal of attention toward increasing family involvement, with the goal of enhancing the quality of service-delivery for youth active with the justice system and their families, and ultimately achieving better overall outcomes. Many states are adopting new initiatives and policies to improve the involvement and engagement of family members in decision-making, treatment, supervision and overall case management. To date, however, there is little published empirical evidence that demonstrates whether or how such involvement will translate into greater success, increased compliance with treatment and conditions, goal attainment, reduced length of stay/time on supervision, and ultimately lower recidivism rates, for youth active with the juvenile justice system. Furthermore, there is a need to clearly define and operationalize “family involvement” within a juvenile justice context, which has not yet been clearly conceptualized or operationalized in the literature. While there are a few studies that examine family involvement with justice involved youth, these are generally limited to youth in out-of-home placement facilities. With the majority of youth remaining in the community during their involvement with the juvenile justice system, conducting research within a community-based setting is an integral part of understanding family involvement. The current study sought to provide an understanding of how best to measure and operationalize family involvement in a broader juvenile justice context. In addition to developing a working definition of, and framework for, family involvement, this dissertation examined whether or not family involvement influences recidivism. To examine the relationship between family involvement and recidivism from a community corrections lens, the current study used case record data from a random sample of 300 youth referred to the Dauphin County Pennsylvania Juvenile Probation Department in 2010. In Pennsylvania juvenile probation officers are involved with a case from referral to case closing; therefore, in addition to providing a community corrections setting, the juvenile probation department provides the opportunity to measure family involvement from case beginning to end. Employing a longitudinal cohort design, two years of retrospective data were collected for the 97 females and 203 males included in the study sample. Multivariate analyses were used to measure the relationship between various indicators of family involvement and youth outcomes. Findings show that family member presence at court hearings is a significant predictor of recidivism. Youth whose family members missed at least one court hearing were significantly more likely to have a violation of probation filed, to recidivate, and to have a shorter time to rearrest. Additionally, when exploring familial characteristics that may contribute to family involvement, risk assessment results and family member criminal justice history were significantly related to various family involvement measures. This research helps lay the conceptual and empirical foundation for understanding and testing the impact of family involvement, and its findings contribute to the knowledge of the role of family in the juvenile justice system. This dissertation also suggests new areas of research to assess the effects of family involvement on juvenile justice outcomes. These initial findings assist in understanding the nature and impact of such initiatives, and provide important feedback to policy makers and program officials as they continue to shape the role of a family involvement strategy in juvenile justice, with the primary goal of increasing overall youth success and reducing recidivism. / Criminal Justice

This quantitative descriptive study investigated the attitudes of educational supervisors (i.e., head teachers) in Kuwaiti middle schools toward the involvement of families in the education of their adolescent children. Joyce Epstein's model of family involvement (1996c) provided the theoretical framework. A survey instrument, Supervisor's Attitudes toward Family Involvement in Kuwait Middle Schools, was adapted and translated into the Arabic language to collect data from male and female Kuwaiti middle schools supervisors in the six school districts. As anticipated, the results of this study identified (a) any significant differences, by gender and district, in attitudes about family involvement among Kuwaiti middle school supervisors; (b) the level of responsibility for encouraging family-school relationships among administrators, teachers, parents, and students; (c) the level of importance of different types of family involvement; (d) the barriers preventing families from being more involved in their children's middle schools in Kuwait; and (e) the degree of importance of each type of educational involvement for family participation during their children's middle school years. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the mean scores by gender for supervisors' attitudes. One–way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether there were significant differences in the mean scores by district. The results indicated there were no significant differences in supervisors' attitudes by geographical district. There were some significant differences in supervisors' attitudes toward family involvement by gender. These findings might be related to traditional culture that affects women in Arabic societies, including the Kuwaiti community. Frequency distributions were calculated to determine the participants' responses to the subsequent research questions. The results indicated that administrators and families were perceived as more responsible for initiating family involvement than supervisors, teachers, and students. All six types of family involvement in Epstein's model (1996c) were important to the supervisors. Lack of time was a serious barrier to family involvement for both teachers and parents and the perceived problem of parent-adolescent conflict during later childhood was an additional barrier. Providing a home environment that supported learning, regular communication with teachers and administrators, and assisting students at home were considered to be highly important. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to identify major factors that directly affect parental involvement in 21st century schools. This study examined several elements of parental involvement. It calculated the idea of the changing family context and parental involvement, technology and parental involvement, the impact of Cultural Capital and parental involvement, the impact of the Academic Parent Teacher Teams program and parental involvement, and parents’ demographics and parental involvement. Data gathered to inform the research were derived from parent surveys and teachers and administrators interviews. The research examined the relationship between the parental involvement and parents’ perception of the school's accessibility, parents' perception of school's communication, parents’ perception of the school’s climate, parent’s perception of their role in student's learning, teachers’ perceptions of the role of technology, parents’ perceptions of the usefulness of the Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) Program, teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness of the APTT Program, Cultural Capital, and parents’ demographics: level of education, occupation, socioeconomic level, parental structure, ethnicity, and marital status parental. The benefits of the research are to inform educators how to structure programs that will directly assist parents on how to help their children more effectively at home, to reeducate parents on how to unpack standards, and measure the successfulness of a program that helped to bridge the gap between family and school. The surveys and interviews were administered at the elementary school located in Atlanta. The researcher focused this work on studies examining the associations between family, home and school because these associations began emerging as efforts to assess the efficacy of governmental programs and other interventions. In the late 1990s, scholarly attention turned to “community control of schools, especially in the education of low-income children, special education students, and English language learners” (McKenna & Millen, 2013, p. 14). These researchers sought to recommend strategies that would promote parent, family, and community involvement. These areas and these children were considered as the ones that could benefit the most from parental involvement. The results from these studies seek to add more clarity on how educators today can enlighten schools on how to bridge the family and school gap in the 21st century.

Thesis advisor: Dennis L. Shirley / Over the past fifteen years there has been a growing scholarly interest in education issues among community based organizations (CBOs). Education organizing is the mobilization of parents and community members for the purpose of transforming schools and CBOs have already demonstrated their ability to impact both student outcomes and educational policy (Shirley, 1997). The Annenberg Institute found that "successful organizing strategies contributed to increased student attendance, improved standardized test score performance, higher graduation rates and college-going aspirations" (Mediratta, Shah, & McAlister, 2008 ). While an increasing number of researchers are exploring this phenomenon, we know little about the experiences of CBOs members who are engaged in this work. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach and a conceptual framework that draws from situated learning, social capital, and networking theory, this study explored the following questions as they relate to the experiences of members in three different CBOs: * What motivates families to participate in CBOs involved in education organizing? * How do members learn the work of education organizing? What skills (if any) are acquired as both individuals and as a collective, and how are they developed? * What impact (both material and personal) does participation have on CBO members' lives? Findings from this study revealed that participation in the process of education organizing has the potential to not only transform schools, but the participants themselves. Initial understandings of self-interest evolved to include broader social concerns. Members reported increases in confidence, desire, and ability to fully participate in democratic processes. The findings also indicated that the effectiveness of a CBO is related to its organizational structure, its members' capacity for learning, the types of issues that members are trying to address, and the strength of their relationships within local civic ecologies. Those groups that were able to operate in diverse networks while developing the necessary technological, political, and cultural knowledge generally met with the most success. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The cultivation of parent involvement in America's public schools is no longer an option. Under the provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: No Child Left Behind (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 2001), it is now a mandate. Moreover, in the current climate of emphasis upon student performance and school accountability, schools need not just the support of parents, but also their full involvement in meaningful partnerships. The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a better understanding of the factors that significantly affect the level of parent involvement during the middle-school years. This was accomplished through the use of open-ended interviews with 24 participants in Northeast Tennessee comprised of 4 elementary and 4 middle-school principals along with 16 middle-school parents who were identified by their child's principal as having been highly involved when their child was in elementary school. The findings from this study suggested that the parent and principal perceptions regarding the factors that influence the decline in parent involvement during the middle-school years are often quite different. In general, perceptions of parents and principals that were held in common were those associated with the role of the parent, the positive effects of parent involvement upon student success, and the role of the principal in modeling the encouragement of parent involvement. The finding suggested, however, that there was significant disparity between parent and principal perceptions with regard to how well middle schools encourage parent involvement. Major recommendations included middle schools communicating with feeder elementary schools to identify highly involved parents of rising middle-school students, a system of personally contacting such parents as a means to encourage their continued involvement, and the establishment of a dialogue among parents and educators with regard to developing an action plan based upon best practices.