“Although the economy of the UAE is prospering, its future depends on the behavior of the youth and their ability to embrace a new diversified model of economic development and to draw upon the entrepreneurial dynamism of local family firms in order to adapt their business models to the future knowledge-based economy. In this sense, the next generations of the family business members are the key economic and social actors to lead sustainable family firms across generations.”
We expect our report to contribute to the process of generating a family entrepreneurial ecosystem in the UAE by mapping family firm behavior, raising the awareness about the importance of the cultural and institutional environments to support entrepreneurial families, and providing policymakers with information that could be useful to tailor strategic public policies to promote and protect family business legacies in the UAE.
Jan-Philipp Ahrens (Universität Mannheim, Germany) Rodrigo Basco (American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) Annegret Hauer (Universität Mannheim, Germany) Baris Istipliler (Universität Mannheim, Germany) Detlef Keese (Universität Mannheim, Germany) Lech Suwala (Technical University Berlin, Germany)
Description of the track It is well known that the intersection of the family and firm systems may give rise to a competitive advantage due to garnering familiness resource (Habbershon and Williams, 1999, Ahrens et al., 2019). While family business research has put a lot of attention to the ontological, epistemological, and methodological positions focusing on the formation of familiness at the firm level, intersections of family firms with other dimensions, for instance the spatial dimension, have received far less scholarly attention. Interestingly, despite being the most common forms of organization around the world (Astrachan & Shanker, 2003; Faccio & Lang, 2002), and therefore having a genuine spatial and scalar character, those characteristics of family firms have been largely neglected so far (Stough et al. 2015). Although family firms have in common that they provide the socio-economic backbones and continuity in most economies, there are definitely varieties of family firms depending on their geographies from traditional Japanese century-old dynasties, America’s family farms, Germany’s Mittelstand to novel Shanghai and Silicon Valley elites. Moreover, family firms are geographically uneven phenomena with regard to their distribution, and impact at the local, regional, national, or global scales.
Against this background, the track aims to open up a profound debate on this often neglected topic by collecting diverse work on family businesses and their spatialities. By spatialities, we mean a kind of ‘spatial familiness’ (Basco & Suwala 2020; Basco et al. 2020), that can be manifested in different forms. ‘Spatial familiness’ incorporates the nexus of “family firm and (economic) spaces” that can be approached from two perspectives: the family firm’s effect on economic spaces, which attempts to unfold the role family firms play in different economic spaces, and effect of economic spaces on family firms, which considers the role economic spaces play on firm behavior and firm performance. This track addresses the peculiarities of family firms and their recursive relationships with spaces (e.g., locations, places, landscapes) and scales (e.g., local, regional, national, global). Other spatial manifestations such as (social) contexts, (political) territories, (ecologic) environment or spatial typologies (e.g. urban and peripheral) are also conceivable. Hereby, we also aim to address the dynamics, for the good (e.g. urban or regional development by family firms) or the bad (e.g. regional lock-ins due to the lack of innovativeness or rigid values in family firms), unfold through this intersection of family firms and spaces or scales.
We invite scholars from manifold disciplines such as Regional Economics, Economic Geographers, Family Business, Management, Organization Studies, Economic Sociology, Economic Psychology and International Business as well as practitioners from diverse backgrounds to share their interest and to submit their research about spatial patterns of family firms.
This perspective is inherently multidisciplinary, thus we invite all empirical (quantitative and qualitative), conceptual, and methodological work that advances our understanding at this exciting intersection. We believe that methodological exchange from fields, such as geography, business studies, economics, history, politics, information systems, and sociology will foster scientific progress in this young field of research. By sharing novel approaches, we see this track as an opportunity to jointly develop further knowledge about the potential, benefits, and constraints of different methods to enable researchers to improve the design and execution of their research and to spread and share their practices within the community and beyond.
This track and the respective research field being empirically in their infancy, constitutes the only track in this conference that also welcomes drafts and extended research proposals besides full academic papers. Submissions in German language are also possible. This track is linked to the German Journal of Economic Geography and papers may be selected for an inclusion of a dedicated special issue. Moreover, we especially invite YOUNG SCHOLARS to submit their work to this track. In case of questions if your topic might fit the track, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.
RSAI—13th World Congress of the Regional Science Association International
“Smart Regions—Opportunities for Sustainable Development in the Digital Era”
June 2–5, 2020, Marrakesh, Morocco
Special Session—SMEs/Family Businesses and Regional Development
Lech Suwala (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany)
Rodrigo Basco (American University of Sharjah, UAE)
Stefano Amato (IMT School for Advanced Studies, Italy)
Despite the importance of today’s big businesses, big data, and big transitions, there is still room to further investigate small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the geographical spaces in which they dwell. Most SMEs and family firms -or so-called “hidden champions”- are the backbones of most local and regional economies and social development. SMEs and family firms comprise diverse types of businesses, from traditional century-old Japanese dynasties, American family farms, and German Mittelstand to novel Shanghai and Silicon Valley elites. At the same time, these businesses represent geographically uneven phenomena with regard to their distribution across, their impact on, and their interactions with the local, regional, and (inter-)national levels and beyond. While certain types of firms (e.g., startups, multi-national corporations) and processes (e.g., innovation, entrepreneurship) have attracted much attention in regional science in the last decades, SMEs and family firms have mostly been neglected in the fields of regional science and regional economics. Against this background, the session “SMEs/Family Businesses and Regional Development” aims to open up a profound debate on this often-neglected topic. We invite scholars from manifold disciplines, such as regional science, regional economics, economic geography, family business, management, organization studies, and international business as well as practitioners from diverse backgrounds to share their interest and to submit their research on SMEs/family firms and regional development in the widest sense.
Our rationale is to continue with this debate—independent of methodological approach (quantitative or qualitative)—on SMEs and/or family businesses in different spaces and on different scales. Conceptual, empirical, and methodological papers might address, but are not limited to, the following:
Conceptual and theoretical debates about the nature of SMEs/family firms and space (i.e., regional familiness, spaces of familiness, family relatedness in cities and peripheries)
SMEs/family firms and agglomeration (dis-)economies, proximities, externalities, and regional self-reinforcing mechanisms
The contributions (e.g., regional competitiveness) and impacts (e.g., productivity) of SMEs/family firms in agglomerations and peripheries
SMEs/family firms and regional contexts (e.g., social embeddedness, local networks)
The regional expansion and internationalization of SMEs/family firms
Peculiarities in the evolution and trajectories of SMEs/family firms (e.g., family/regional path dependence, family/regional (un-)related variety, family/regional lock-in)
SMEs/family firms and territorial innovation models (e.g., industrial districts, innovative milieus, business clusters, territorial innovation systems [e.g., RIS, NIS], entrepreneurial ecosystems, etc.)
SMEs/family firms and local/regional/national development policies and university-industry cooperation
Issues of sustainable regional development, digitalization, green growth, and SMEs/family firms
Place leadership or corporate urban/regional responsibility by SMEs/family firms
SME-/family firm-specific issues (e.g., succession, governance, reputation, professionalization, etc.) from a regional science perspective
The role of SMEs/family firms in digitalization, smart regions, Industry 4.0 technologies, and platform-based economies and the impact of spaces and scale
The role of SMEs/family firms in value, commodity, and production chain approaches at the local (LVC, LCC, LPN) and global levels (GVC, GCC, GPN)
SMEs’/family firms’ contributions to regional resilience, vulnerability, and/or sovereignty.
If you are interested in presenting a paper in this session, please submit your abstract of no more than 300 words via the RSAI platform (http://www.regionalscience.org/2020worldcongress/) by January 21, 2020.
Ésta es una de las principales conclusiones del estudio realizado por el Foro de Empresa Familiar de las Cámaras Vascas – Eusko Ganberak, junto a la Cátedra de Empresa Familiar de la UPV/EHU, con el objetivo de presentar un radiografía de las empresas familiares en Euskadi, analizar sus principales componentes demográficos, sus fortalezas y debilidades, así como los principales desafíos a los que se enfrentarán en los próximos años, dentro de una comparativa con las economías más desarrolladas de Europa.
Principales resultados
El tamaño de la empresa familiar de la CAPV es menor que el de la empresa familiar europea. La facturación del 75% de las empresas familiares vascas no supera los cinco millones de euros, mientras que en Europa este porcentaje es del 60%. El 40% de las empresas familiares europeas tiene más de 50 personas empleadas frente al 12% de sus homólogas de Euskadi.
Las empresas familiares vascas presentan una alta concentración de la propiedad, de modo que en el 91% está exclusivamente en manos de la familia. Cuentan también con un escaso número de accionistas que son en su mayoría miembros de la familia. El porcentaje de propiedad familiar en Europa es nueve puntos menos que en la CAPV.
La dirección general de la empresa familiar en el País vasco está ocupada mayoritariamente por un hombre que pertenece a la segunda generación de la familia, de edad madura, con estudios universitarios y amplia experiencia en el cargo. En el 24% de las empresas el liderazgo es asumido por una mujer. Este porcentaje es seis puntos mayor que en las empresas familiares europeas.
El 45% de las empresas familiares vascas dispone de un consejo de administración frente al 38% de la empresa familiar europea, lo que supone un gran paso en la profesionalización de la compañía. La diversidad en su composición es el siguiente desafío para aquellas empresas familiares que cuentan ya con este órgano de gobierno.
La concienciación de las familias empresarias de CAPV sobre la importancia de contar con acuerdos o protocolos familiares ha permitido que su nivel de implantación se sitúe a niveles europeos (el 35% cuenta con un protocolo de familia). No obstante, resulta preocupante que el 77% de las empresas familiares encuestadas no tiene intención de establecer un acuerdo consensuado para regular las relaciones entre familia, propiedad y empresa.
A pesar de que la sucesión es el hecho más crítico para la supervivencia de la empresa familiar, únicamente el 35% de las empresas lo ha planificado y, de aquellas que han seleccionado a la persona sucesora, en el 31% el liderazgo será asumido por una mujer, miembro de la familia empresaria.
Los lazos afectivos que unen a la familia con la empresa son los elementos más importantes para definir el carácter de empresa familiar vasca, con un nivel más elevado en comparación con las europeas. Estos aspectos tienen más importancia que la propia participación de la familia en el capital de la empresa.
Las personas que fundaron la empresa familiar han sido y son emprendedoras. Los resultados de la encuesta muestran que un componente esencial para el éxito empresarial, en un proceso de continuo de cambio como el actual, radica en una adecuada actitud hacia el riesgo, entendida ésta como la capacidad de asumir y de manejar la incertidumbre (39%); en una posición proactiva para ser pionera en el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías, técnicas, procesos, productos o servicios (38%); así como en una actitud innovadora que cree en la investigación y desarrollo como fuente de progreso futuro (49%). Estos niveles se aproximan bastante a los de las empresas familiares europeas.
El 55% de las empresas familiares vascas se encuentra en este momento involucradas en procesos de digitalización y un 30% tiene previsto invertir en la transformación digital en los próximos dos años. Sin embargo, existe todavía un importante número de empresas que no consideran la digitalización del negocio entre sus prioridades. No ven la necesidad de transformarse para seguir siendo empresas competitivas en era digital.
Retos de futuro
La continuidad de las empresas familiares requiere de un adecuado equilibrio entre los objetivos empresariales y los familiares. Según reconocen las empresas encuestadas, es necesario tender puentes entre pasado, presente y futuro, entre tradición e innovación, entre familia y negocio para construir una empresa familiar sostenible en la que, además de la estrategia empresarial, se canalicen las preferencias e inquietudes de la familia en su relación con la empresa.
En el plano familiar los desafíos se dirigen a una mayor profesionalización de la relación familia-empresa, con canales e instrumentos adecuados que ayuden a mejorar la comunicación, a preservar el legado familiar, y a conciliar y separar los intereses empresariales y familiares.
En el plano empresarial sus prioridades se centran en la atracción y retención de talento, así como en abordar los procesos de digitalización, robotización y transformación tecnológica que le permitan mantener la competitividad y sostenibilidad empresarial en un entorno económico y mercado en constante evolución.
“Even though the UAE’s economy is prospering, the future of the economy is tied to youths’ entrepreneurial behavior and their participation in a knowledge-based economy”.
Our report provides a summary of the most important results for UAE students in terms of entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial activities. We present our results by comparing the UAE student sample with two additional sub-samples: one composed of students from other Arab countries and one composed of students from the rest of the world.
The “Family business in emerging, developing and transition economies” track aims to contribute to conversations in the family business research field in three ways. First, by encouraging researchers to borrow and replicate research strategies, we expect to foster the generalization of results and test mainstream theories and approaches across contexts. Second, by encouraging researchers to borrow and extend research strategies, we call for scholars to incorporate the specificities of the environment-family relationship to contextualize the family business phenomenon. Finally, by developing research strategies, we can better understand the effect of context on family business and business families.
The 2018-2019 academic year was particularly important for the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business at American University of Sharjah to consolidate the local and international trajectory started in 2015 when the chair was established with the goal of becoming a recognized family business knowledge hub in the United Arab Emirates.
It was a productive and successful academic year for the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business at AUS. Our team was involved in a set of teaching, research, and knowledge-transfer activities to provide sustainable support to family businesses by creating value for business families and regional communities.
The Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business has contributed to the core mission to provide the best student experience of American University of Sharjah by offering a cutting edge knowledge based on a world-class in-house research to transform the life of the future generation of family business leaders.
Our compromise is with current and future family business generations because as Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi pointed “securing the future of family businesses, which account for the majority of establishment and employers in the region, also means securing a better future for the region”.
Our team would like to thank to all individuals and institutions that support the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business and collaborate with us on numerous activities.
The Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business at AUS is seeking PhD students who are interested in visiting the School of Business Administration to collaborate on family business research with faculty. Visiting students will work with Prof. Rodrigo Basco and a group of international scholars with the aim of developing high-impact research on family business. The duration of the visiting appointment is for four-and-a-half months.
RSA—Annual Conference Pushing Regions beyond Their Borders
June 5, 2019–June 7, 2019, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Open Special Session—SMEs and Family Businesses in Urban and Peripheral Areas
Lech Suwala (Technische Universität Berlin)
Rodrigo Basco (American University of Sharjah)
Despite big business, big data, and big transitions, there are still small and medium enterprises (SMEs), many of which are family firms or so-called hidden champions that serve as the economic backbones of and provide continuity in developed and emerging economies. SMEs and family firms comprise diverse types of businesses, from traditional century-old Japanese dynasties, American family farms, and German Mittelstand to novel Shanghai and Silicon Valley elites. Simultaneously, they are geographically uneven phenomena in terms of their distribution as well as their impact on and interplay with the local, regional, and national levels and beyond, thus requiring more academic attention in the field of regional studies. Against this background, this session aims to open up a profound debate on this often-neglected topic by collecting diverse work on SMEs and/or family businesses in urban and peripheral contexts. We invite scholars from manifold disciplines, such as regional economics, economic geography, family business, management, organization studies, and international business, as well as practitioners from diverse backgrounds to share their interests and to submit their research on the spatiality of SMEs and family firms, particularly in urban and peripheral areas.
The Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business at AUS is seeking PhD students who are interested in visiting the School of Business Administration to collaborate on family business research with faculty. Visiting students will work with Prof. Rodrigo Basco and a group of international scholars with the aim of developing high-impact research on family business. The duration of the visiting appointment is for four-and-a-half months.
EURAM 2019
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