Despite family business researchers having worked towards an understanding of how family businesses obtain success or achieve satisfaction, much confusion and debate on how to define success still exist in the field. It is suggested that defining success in terms of a family business is problematic because even family members themselves have varying perceptions of success. This confusion and debate has in recent years led to an increase in research concerning the meaning of success in the context of family businesses. Defining success is necessary, because if family businesses do not know what success means and what they are working towards, they will not know what decisions to make in order to be successful. Against this background, the primary objective of this study was to establish the perceptions of the concept of success among family business owners. For the purpose of this study, a mixed methodology was adopted because the data was collected using a qualitative method but analysed using a quantitative method. This study used a free word association test – which is a qualitative projective technique – to collect the data, which was then analysed by means of summative manifest content analysis which is a quantitative research method. Convenience sampling was used to identify small business owners to undergo the word association tests. By means of these tests, 811 words/phrases were generated by the 50 small non-family and 51 small family business owners who participated in the study. Theoretical, data, investigator and methodological triangulation was used to ensure the validity of the study whereas credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability and authenticity were applied to ensure its reliability. A coding framework was developed and several analyses were undertaken to summarise the data. The nature and position of the words/phrases recalled as well as the most frequently occurring words/phrases recalled were reported on. To determine whether significant differences exist between the different sample groups, Chi-square statistics were calculated to ascertain statistical significance and Craemer’s V statistics to establish practical significance. The findings of this study show that small non-family business owners mostly associate business success with non-financial indicators. These non-family business owners perceive a successful small business as one that is customer-focused, provides quality service and is characterised by discipline, drive and determination. Similarly, the findings show that the small family business owners participating in this study mostly associate family business success with words/phrases of a non-financial nature. The family business owners perceived a successful family business as one where, in addition to financial returns, discipline, drive and determination, as well as trust, honesty and hard work prevail. Even though both non-family and family business owner participants mostly recalled words/phrases of a non-financial nature, non-family business owners were mainly concerned with being customer-focused and proving quality, whereas family business owners focused more on values such as discipline, drive and determination as well as trust and honesty. Based on the perceptions of success among family business owners, a workable definition of “family business success” was formulated. Family business owners mainly perceive a successful family business as one where, in addition to financial returns, values such as discipline, drive and determination as well as trust, honesty and hard work prevail in the organisational culture of their businesses. Investigating the meaning of success in the field of family business has become a topic of growing interest. This study is one of the first in South Africa to adopt a qualitative dominant approach in attempting to overcome the lack of consensus, as well as to gain greater clarity regarding the way in which success is defined by family businesses. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide family business owners as well as practitioners and researchers in the field with a better understanding of what family business success entails. This understanding offers the potential to guide and improve goal-setting and strategic processes by family businesses, resulting in fewer family business failures and ultimately improving the South African economy.

I study the role of auditing in mitigating agency concerns in family firms. Family firms face less severe agency problems due to the separation of ownership and control (Type 1) but more severe agency problems between controlling and noncontrolling shareholders (Type 2). As family firms make up a large part of most free enterprise economies it is important to examine these two agency problems with respect to auditor choice and audit effort. I find that family firms are more likely to choose a specialist auditor than nonfamily firms, consistent with the argument that family firms need to signal their non-expropriating behaviors by choosing specialist auditors. I further find that audit fees are lower in family firms compared to nonfamily firms, consistent with the hypothesis that the Type 1 agency conflict dominates the Type 2 agency conflict in the determination of audit effort and pricing. Moreover, consistent with prior literature that states that effective internal governance demands a quality auditor and more audit effort irrespective of ownership structure, I find that the positive association between family ownership and specialist auditor choice is stronger when internal governance is strong and the negative relation between audit fees and family ownership is weaker when the internal governance is strong. I find that these results on audit fees are robust to the use of alternative measures of concentrated influence such as CEO ownership, inside director ownership, and the presence of one or more founder directors. I also find that the effect of internal governance on audit fees is not limited to one or a few components of internal governance.

No abstract available / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Financial Management / unrestricted

All Swedish state-owned companies have been mandated by the state to establish sustainability targets within 2013. This thesis intends to shed light on the sustainability targets adopted by Vattenfall AB in the areas of carbon emissions, renewables and energy efficiency. In contact with the company, the thesis evaluates the targets in terms of practicability, adequacy and market competition. In other words, it assesses how Vattenfall intends to achieve the targets, whether they raise the “sustainability bar” high enough for the company and how they compare with targets set by competitor companies such as E.ON and Fortum. Furthermore, the thesis identifies room for improvement within Vattenfall’s sustainability work, and makes recommendations to the company, on how to seek improvement. Having the targets and their related plan of action as the focal point, a number of different areas within the domain of corporate sustainability are covered, such as sustainability approach, strategy, work, performance and reporting, while the Swedish state-ownership policy works as a key guideline. The thesis work is based primarily on literature review and analysis of material published by Vattenfall, E.ON and Fortum, the Swedish state ownership policy, corporate energy target setting, and climate and energy policies of the European Union. / Alla svenska statligt ägda företag har av staten ålagts att under 2013 definiera hållbarhetsmål, och att målen ska vara i bruk fr. o m 2014. Föreliggande studie analyserar de hållbarhetsmål som Vattenfall AB har specificerat inom koldioxidutsläpp, förnyelsebara energikällor och energieffektivisering. I samarbete med företaget, utvärderar studien de tre målen utifrån praktiskt genomförande, relevans och marknadskonkurrens. Med andra ord, studien bedömer Vattenfall´s intentioner hur man ska uppnå målen, huruvida de lyfter ”hållbarhetsambitionen” tillräckligt högt för företaget och hur målen är i jämförelse med de mål som satts av konkurrentföretagen E.ON och Fortum. Dessutom, studien identifierar förbättringsutrymmen för Vattenfall´s hållbarhetsarbete och ger rekommendationer för hur företaget kan hitta förbättringsområdena. Genom att ha målen och de kopplade åtgärdsförslagen i centrum, inkluderas ett antal andra områden inom hållbar utveckling, såsom hållbarhetsinriktning, strategi, arbetsinsatser, genomförande och redovisning, samtidigt som den svenska statens ägarpolicy ska fungera som vägledning. Studien är primärt baserad på en litteraturgenomgång och analys av information publicerat av Vattenfall, E.ON och Fortum, den svenska statens ägarpolicy, företagens presenterade energimål, samt klimat- och energipolicies presenterade av Europeiska Unionen.

While state-owned enterprises play an instrumental role in economic development, they are a significant fiscal risk to the state. This occurs through state-guaranteed loans that have more lax credit monitoring, and soft budget constraints, where stateowned enterprises can increase their debt levels without fear of liquidation or bankruptcy. This study empirically investigated the relationship between Eskom’s financial performance and its own debt and government debt, using the utility’s financial statements and government debt data from 1985 to 2017. The study used two models, namely, the Vector Autoregression (VAR) Model and the Error Correction Model (ECM) to analyse the data. In terms of the VAR, according to the impulse response functions, a one standard deviation shock to the debt-to-GDP ratio has a minimal impact on the electricity price, Eskom’s revenue and Eskom debt. Therefore, an innovation to the debt-toGDP ratio explains a large proportion of itself, as one standard deviation shock to the electricity price has a positive response from Eskom’s revenue and its debt. Similarly, a one standard deviation shock to Eskom’s revenue has a positive response from the electricity price and Eskom’s debt, and a one standard deviation shock to Eskom’s debt has a positive response from the electricity price and Eskom’s revenue. The forecast error variance decomposition analysis shows that up to 9,17% of the forecast error variance of the debt-to-GDP ratio is explained by the electricity price. Government debt relative to GDP explains 32,9% of the forecast error variance in the electricity price. The electricity price explains 29,51% of the forecast error variance in Eskom’s revenue. The forecast error variance for Eskom debt is explained by government debt/GDP which is up to 30,34%. The ECM shows that a long run relationship exists between Eskom’s debt relative to government debt, Eskom’s revenue relative to the electricity price and Eskom’s staff numbers. The study shows that Eskom’s increase in revenue is largely attributed to tariff hikes, stateguaranteed loans and equity injections, rather than increases in sales. A large proportion of government debt is comprised of Eskom debt. The proposed avenue as a way forward is partial privatisation or fiscal consolidation. / Economics

A reform of the constitutional bases of the oil and gas industry in Mexico took place in 2013 (with sweeping changes to secondary legislation through 2014). Private and foreign production of hydrocarbons became legal after almost six decades of national monopoly --and 75 years after the revolutionary regime nationalized the assets of foreign producers. A wholesale market for electricity was also put in place. These legal reforms started to crystallize in 2018, as private producers started to have access to the networks carrying electricity and gas across the nation. This research presents a retrospective examination of 23 years of policy implementation in the natural gas industry of Mexico (1995-2018). The dissertation pays central attention to the patterns of state intervention that have characterized the national economy and that have contributed to shape the outcome of two policy packages pursuing liberalisation (one starting in 1995 and the other in 2013 and 2014). The research is based on a classical political economy approach, drawing on the literature on Varieties of Capitalism and Varieties of State Capitalism. The study centers on the relations between the players in the sector: their constraints and resources, against a backdrop of other economic policies affecting energy. Importantly, this study considers regulation as a mechanism of economic coordination. As a process-tracing case study, this thesis sets out to elucidate the distinctive factors that contributed to produce the current organization of the natural gas sector in Mexico --one where, ironically, liberalisation has been possible thanks to the deployment of a new state-owned enterprise. Three factors stand out as characteristic in the Mexican trajectory towards liberalisation: the strength of the national oil company as an obstacle of upstream liberalisation for almost two decades after 1995; the absence or weakness of constituencies supporting the restructuring of the sector (large industrial consumers, local distributors), and the sudden restructuring of supply and demand patterns, with the state-owned electricity enterprise emerging as a dominant trader. The new centrality of the electricity SOE and an Independent System Operator (also an SOE) underscores the limits of the new, more competitive, structure of the Mexican natural gas industry.

With the constant changes in society, the way companies market themselves has changed and customer engagement, relationships and transparency has become a more important factor. Significantly in how businesses should conduct their business to create as much value as possible. And through this ever-changing environment in which retail exists, flexibility and the need for responsiveness is key where co-creational strategies can help a long way in opening up companies to reach, create and maintain good relationships through communication. The qualitative research method of a case study with semi-structured interviews was conducted to gather empirical findings for this study. The interviews were conducted with five employees of a family owned retail business to obtain a full perspective and understanding of their work towards customer engagement and co-creation. The authors of this thesis have adopted a deductive approach in this thesis. The thesis conclusion shows several reasons why co-creation strategies could amplify engagement and how the company needs to be aware and acknowledge their customers, to further build relationships. Findings indicate that a more structured approach is needed for their social media communication platforms. Moreover, it is important to note that this research is conducted from the companies’ perspective. Lastly, it is important to recognize the dynamics and reputation of the family business, as local status and size influence the overall experience and view of the company.

The People’s Republic of China (“China”) claims absolute immunity for itself but embraces a concept of state for immunity purposes that excludes state-owned enterprises (“SOEs”). This position has led to confusion and frustration in international litigation against China and Chinese SOEs, particularly when massive Chinese foreign investments are led by SOEs, including those made under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Yet, the immunity status of Chinese SOEs is unclear. Against this backdrop, this thesis examines Chinese SOEs’ ability to claim sovereign immunity under the customary international law of restrictive immunity as expressed and built on in the 2004 United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property (“UNCSI”), the 1976 United States Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“US FSIA”) and the 1978 United Kingdom State Immunity Act (“UK SIA”). In investigating the immunity status of the 97 SOEs in which the Chinese central government has direct and full/majority ownership, this thesis answers two questions: (1) under what circumstances would these 97 Chinese SOEs be treated as part of the state for immunity purposes under the UNCSI, the US FSIA and the UK SIA; and (2) under what circumstances would these 97 Chinese SOEs attract jurisdictional and execution immunities thereunder. A critical part of this analysis involves developing an understanding of Chinese SOEs’ dual identity as defined by the Chinese political economy. Chinese SOEs’ dual identity has two levels of meaning. First, it reflects the fact that some Chinese SOEs are categorized as commercial SOEs and others are categorized as public welfare SOEs in the current SOE reform. Secondly, commercial Chinese SOEs have a dual identity, i.e., a commercial and a sovereign aspect in their operations. While commercial SOEs’ primary goal is to pursue commercial interests, they also implement the state’s social, political, and economic policy goals. This sovereign aspect—primarily reflected as the sovereign purpose in their commercial transactions—adds complexity, but is necessary, to our assessment of Chinese SOEs’ “state” status and immunity under the customary international law of sovereign immunity. The three regimes studied in this thesis—the UNCSI, the US FSIA, and the UK SIA—not only take distinctive approaches toward the definition of the state, but also to the commercial exceptions to jurisdictional immunity and execution immunity. Their different analytical frameworks take us to different conclusions about Chinese SOEs’ “state” status and immunity in some cases. Under the UNCSI and the UK SIA, in principle, Chinese SOEs are unlikely to acquire “state” status to claim immunity in their commercial capacity, and consequently, unable to attract jurisdictional immunity and execution immunity for their assets as separate entities. But public welfare SOEs and some commercial SOEs can potentially attract jurisdictional immunity and execution immunity for their assets because to the extent that the purposes of their conduct—which are often related to inherently sovereign functions like the military or the public welfare—are considered in the overall context, the nature of the commercial transaction could be converted into a sovereign one. Under the US FSIA, Chinese SOEs—either commercial or public welfare ones—are state agencies/instrumentalities for immunity purposes, thus, have “state” status. But, in contrast with the UNCSI and the UK SIA, Chinese SOEs are less likely to attract jurisdictional immunity for their commercial activities or execution immunity for their assets under the US FSIA because the US statute applies a broad commercial exception that only considers the nature of the conduct in characterizing whether a transaction is a commercial one. This thesis’s investigations and conclusions have commercial, sovereign, and policy implications for Chinese SOEs’ international business transactions, China’s sovereign immunity position, and litigation involving China and Chinese SOEs in jurisdictions where restrictive immunity is upheld. First, in commercial terms, the analysis in this thesis will better enable commercial parties and states that have commercial relations with Chinese SOEs to understand the dual identity of Chinese SOEs defined by the Chinese political economy and understand under what circumstances Chinese SOEs can potentially attract jurisdictional and execution immunities. Second, in sovereign terms, my research enables states to assess their diplomatic and economic relationships with China from a foreign relations law perspective as China asserts absolute immunity in foreign domestic courts. As this thesis suggests, litigation against China and its emanations and execution against their assets in states where restrictive immunity is applied could give rise to sensitive political clashes in light of China’s absolute immunity position. The ongoing pandemic litigation between the State of Missouri and China in the US court is an example. In line with its practice, China refused to appear in this and other similar cases. My thesis work could provide legal researchers and practitioners with a better informed legal perspective on these highly political disputes. Third, in policy terms, my Chapter on China’s sovereign immunity and my findings that some commercial and public welfare SOEs can potentially attract jurisdictional and execution immunities under the UNCSI and the UK SIA provide China some reasons to not only embrace restrictive immunity but to clarify the definition of the state for immunity purposes thereunder. Ratifying the UNCSI, in my view, would allow China’s position to conform to international law on the one hand; and allow China to contribute to the development of the law of sovereign immunity on the other hand.

With over 11.6 million establishments, women owned small businesses hold a crucial part in supporting the US economy’s wellbeing. However, owning a small business comes with numerous challenges that not all can overcome. This study investigates the challenges of ten women-owned small businesses in Johnson City, Tennessee. The interview results display that women struggle with similar challenges as men; however, they have more difficulty balancing gender roles and societal expectations with owning a small business. This research concludes that men and women do not have equal opportunities when it comes to owning a small business and women are at a disadvantage in specific areas.

This study aims to examine the attitudes of the Saudi undergraduate college students toward the anticipated effects of privatization on the employment system of the Saudi privatized SOEs. Using survey questionnaire data collected in May 2002 from 672 Saudi undergraduate college students, the study results reveal varied attitudes. On the one hand, large percentages of the respondents prefer working under close supervision of Saudi management, having a salary based on productivity, being promoted based upon performance (rather than seniority), and adhering to prescribed procedures in executing job tasks. On the other hand, high percentages of the study respondents tend to dislike the concepts of putting forth more effort to meet management's plans, of working on nights and weekend, and of compromising job security in return for a higher salary. In addition, while the majority of the study respondents believe that privatization of state-owned enterprises is best for the local economy, their support for privatization is qualified by their insistence or desire that it not negatively impact their own interests. The statistical significance and association analyses reveal that the effects of academic majors and province on respondents' attitudes toward promotion criteria, teaming, and management's nationality are indeed significant. In addition, gender, SES, living areas prior to college entry, and adherence to religion are significantly related to respondents' attitudes toward privatization in general and toward some of its potential effects on the employment system. Recommendations are provided. / Ph. D.