Discussion: View Thread

Please post. Thank you.

Call for Papers

Special Issue of Journal of Family Business Management on

Enacting Strategy in Family Businesses

Guest Editors

Leon Schjoedt, Indiana University South Bend

Alan Carsrud, Abo Akademi University

Casey Frid, Pace University

What strategic actions do family businesses undertake? Do they analyze competitors, and formulate and implement strategy deliberately? Or, does a strategy emerge unplanned from past actions? Is it something in between? These questions are the primary drivers of this special issue.

Strategy may be considered as "a pattern in a stream of decisions" on a continuum from deliberate to emergent (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985, p. 257). On the one hand, "entrepreneurship requires action" (McMullen & Shepherd, 2006, p. 132). Strategy needs to be enacted to have an effect on family business performance. Yet, underlying these actions are individual thought processes, emotions, and social behaviors that make up "behavioral strategy" (Powell, Lovallo, & Fox, 2011).

The aim of this special issue is to elucidate the relationship between cognitive processes and concrete, strategic actions in family businesses. The aim is also to extend the limited research on strategy in family businesses (Harris, Martinez & Ward, 1994).  In essence, the focus of the special issue is on how strategy is enacted in terms of concrete behaviors at the individual and group levels by individuals who own or manage family businesses. Though strategy enactment is central, it may be considered as either an antecedent or a consequence.

This special issue thus concentrates on both the mental processes underlying action, and the concrete actions that are part of the enactment of strategy in family businesses, after emergence. The objective is to broaden the focus in behavior research to include post-startup activities in the context of family businesses. Any theoretical approaches are welcome, so long as the research is behavior based. Research aimed at better understanding the complex relationships between behavior constructs at the individual, group, and firm level are encouraged. All methodological approaches are welcomed, but preference will be given to articles that reflect some degree of methodological pluralism.

Authors should follow the Author Guidelines for manuscript preparation available on the journal's website (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=jfbm). Manuscripts should be submitted to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jfbm before February 1, 2014. Authors must specify that the submission is for the special issue on Enacting Strategy in Family Businesses. All papers will be subject to the journal's normal review process. Publication is scheduled for volume 5, issue 1, March, 2015. Please contact Leon Schjoedt (leonschjoedt@ymail.com) if you have any questions about the special issue.