Leading up to the time just before the economic and global meltdown of 2008, economist and theorist forecasted as early as 2005 about and impending financial crisis that would affect every sector of the business and financial community. As we discover in more dramatic detail that family firms are occupying a big percentage in small to medium size enterprises, we wondered how they would be affected by such a high degree of uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets during the economic crisis. With these factors in mind, we would like to see it in a more day–to–day, practical application within family firms. In the supply chain or procurement life-cycle, firms need to receive products and services from the supplier and the supplier will in turn offer those same services to the customer. The firm will tend to structure this tradeoff with a contractual structure to guarantee achievement of mutual benefit and economic objectives of the firm. On the other hand, family firms are famous for being distinguish from non-family firms in their non-economic objective they persuade along their businesses. Considering these two different logics that affects the decision of the firm in structuring contractual governance with the exchanging party. We ask the following questions in our purpose.

Socio-Emotional Wealth in family firms and its influence on green product innovations is an important theme in general management research. The purpose of the study was to understand the link between the socio-emotional wealth of family firms and green innovation to understand how family firms in their quest to preserve their socio-emotional wealth will influence green innovation motives. The study was based on a single case study, a packaging company chosen with an innovation center for green solutions. A total of 11 interviews were conducted. The study is based on constructionism and relativism research philosophy. The findings show that there is an influence of the dimensions of the FIBER model of socio-emotional wealth on green innovation while preserving their socio-emotional wealth. Organizations can use these findings to get an understanding of green innovation, as well as that family firms, need to embrace more their uniqueness as it’s the result of their reliance on socio-emotional wealth.

With technological advancements rendering customer expectations ever more sophisticated, firms must compete with increasingly complex service offerings to secure their position in the market. For firms in the hospitality industry, innovating their service offerings to cater to these changing customer demands has therefore become a prerequisite to survive. This paper takes a dynamic capability perspective to examine how family firms fare in this rapidly changing environment by examining the role of family influence on their capabilities to engage in service innovation.  The purpose of the study was to describe and explain how family influence impacts dynamic capabilities for service innovation in a family firm within the hospitality industry. The aim of the study was to derive insights on how family influence impacts family firms’ innovation capacity and to stimulate future work in the field of research.  This study is based on an in-depth single case study approach. Empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Based on a qualitative explorative study using an abductive approach, we were able to develop new combinations of established theoretical models and concepts with findings from our theory and empirical data.  Five attributes of family influence were identified that impact family firms’ capabilities for service innovation - both positively and negatively. The results indicate that family influence can positively impact dynamic sensing capabilitites for service innovation, while the impact of family influence on dynamic seizing and dynamic transforming capabilities for service innovation can be ambiguous. The findings call for continued exploration of the role of family influence on dynamic capabilities for service innovation and family firms’ innovation capacity in general.

Although private family organisations are prevalent role players in both the South African and international economies, limited research has been performed with regard to them. In terms of regulatory requirements, South African private organisations are neither legally required to comply with corporate governance principles, nor are they required to make their financial data available to the general public. Lack of available data, and limited available research, have resulted in an absence of clarity with regard to whether governance structures in private family organisations add any value to these organisations. This study therefore explores, through the use of a multiple-case study, how the individual private family organisations have structured their governance mechanisms, and the reasons as to why they chose to implement these structures. Both case studies revealed that governance structures, in general, add value. The implemented governance structures may even have contributed to the increase in financial performance over time. / Management Accounting / M. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)