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- Akhter, Naveed
(author)
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Family business portfolios : Enduring entrepreneurship and exit strategies
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines how family business portfolios endure across time and investigates the entrepreneurial strategies that they engage in. The goal of this dissertation is addressed through five appended papers in which I have argued for the importance of business families owning multiple firms, that is, portfolio entrepreneurship. Portfolio entrepreneurship plays a central role in economic development as it is a prevalent phenomenon in developed and emerging economies. However, despite its importance, there is currently very little research on portfolio entrepreneurship, especially in the context of family firms.In so doing, I study nine business families owning multiple businesses in Pakistan. I conducted in-depth interviews with family owners and employees; the interviews were supplemented with other sources of data such as observations and archival material. When studying questions such as how a portfolio is built-up across generations, how and why business families exit and, when they exit, which businesses they choose to exit from, I draw on insights from the literature on portfolio entrepreneurship, business exit, family firms, socioemotional wealth, sensemaking, compassion and social identity theory in the five papers.The dissertation addresses the calls for studies on portfolio entrepreneurship in the context of family firms by examining the process through which a portfolio is constructed by studying performance and exit related issues. In other words, it examines both the growth and the contraction of portfolios. The study offers several contributions. First, it contributes to studies on enduring entrepreneurship by investigating how business families last across time despite encountering difficult situations and declining business. Second, the study contributes to the portfolio entrepreneurship literature by elucidating how portfolios are built across generations and the roles of both growth and contractions while addressing processual and contextual issues.Third, the study contributes to the business exit literature by looking at the exit process in a family business context and exploring multiple exits. This isunique, as it is, to the best of my knowledge, the first study on business exits looking at multiple exit in the context of family firms. Fourth, the study also contributes to the literature on family firms by exploring how and why business families refrain from exiting from their core legacy business and how their emotions influence the exit process.Finally, the study contributes to context-related issues. The study adds to the literature on contextualization and addresses the call for more context-specific studies in entrepreneurship scholarship. This dissertation is focused on context-based factors considering the spatial and social context, where the former has been undertaken by taking an emerging economy and country context as the setting, while the latter refers to the relational and emotional ties within family firms. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this dissertation has important implications for practice. The dissertation brings to the fore some promising and unique ways in which entrepreneurship endures across time and context through the transgenerational transmission of entrepreneurship and insights into how business families behave in a declining business situation. Additionally, this study offers insights for family owners and managers on how to address the dilemma of continued entrepreneurship, that is, how to encourage and foster enduring entrepreneurship in organizations, in particular in the context of family firms.
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- Akhter, Naveed, et al.
(author)
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If we cannot have it then no one should : Shutting down versus selling in family business portfolios
- 2015
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In: Academy of Management Proceedings, January 2015 (Meeting Abstract Supplement) 15764, 2015.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present study investigates exit patterns in family business portfolios in times of declining performance. Drawing on social identity theory and a sample of six family business portfolios from Pakistan, we reveal that business families often prefer shutting down satellite portfolio firms rather than selling them. This is found to be mainly driven by the identity fit of the family and the satellite business and the desire to restart it at a later point in time. This study contributes to literature on portfolio entrepreneurship, business exit, and long-term success and endurance of family firms.
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- Akhter, Naveed, et al.
(author)
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If we can't have it, then no one should : Shutting down versus selling in family business portfolios
- 2016
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In: Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. - : Wiley. - 1932-4391 .- 1932-443X. ; 10:4, s. 371-394
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- How does a business family manage its business portfolio in times of declining performance to sustain the portfolio's long-term endurance? Drawing on social identity theory and six family business portfolios from Pakistan, we find that business families may prefer to shut down a satellite business rather than sell it, which is primarily driven by identity considerations. In addition, the family's goal to recycle the assets, the aim to restart the business later, and the increasing decline in performance are important contingency factors. This study contributes to the literature on portfolio entrepreneurship, business exit, and the enduring entrepreneurship of family firms.
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5. |
- Akhter, Naveed
(author)
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Kinship and the family business
- 2015
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In: Theoretical perspectives on family businesses. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781783479658 - 9781783479665 ; , s. 175-190
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this chapter is to review and synthesise the prior work on kinship in family firms and to open up future research avenues for this interesting and important topic. The study shows that kinship is highly relevant in family firms by revisiting the concept of family and kinship as well as the definition of family firms. This chapter explores important aspects related to family firms, such as continuity of generations, succession, inheritance and resource provision and links these to kinship. These aspects are identified as four functions of kinship and indicate the possible research gaps, thereby suggesting future kinship research avenues.
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- Akhter, Naveed
(author)
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Portfolio entrepreneurship in family firms : Taking stock and moving forward
- 2016
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Portfolio entrepreneurship is a critical but relatively unexplored aspect of entrepreneurship literature. In particular, little research exists on portfolio entrepreneurship in the context of family firms. Existing literature on portfolio entrepreneurship in the context of family firms tends to have multiple research gaps which are unaddressed. To this end, we explore the extant literature on portfolio entrepreneurship in general and portfolio entrepreneurship in the context of family firms in particular and bring forth three future research areas. First, we examine how triggers and motivations to indulge in portfolio entrepreneurship are relevant and important for family firms. Second, we explore the role of different settings for the exploration of the portfolio family firms. Third, we argue that performance and outcome results are important aspects to have a closer look at the growth and survival of portfolio family firms.
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