The rising number of non-religious people in Western countries can have major implications for organizations and their management practices. However, to date, this phenomenon has not attracted a great deal of interest among management scholars. In this paper, we outline how the rise of the non-religious could affect organizations in Western countries. We discuss three major issues. First, we elaborate on the phenomenon of rising non-religiosity. Next, we analyze how this rise of the non-religious population could affect businesses and organizations. We conclude by pointing out some ways in which managers can deal with this increasingly important phenomenon.

Theoretical basis The case illustrates how environmental forces affect an industry’s profitability. PESTEL and five forces analyses can be used to examine the retail agricultural equipment industry. Research methodology Single case study. Case overview/synopsis Jonathan Sullivan has a decision to make. His company is struggling due to difficult industry conditions. He is questioning if the company can continue to survive. MEC is an agricultural equipment dealer. The industry has experienced boom-and-bust periods since the company was founded. But the current downturn seems different. The past five years have been difficult as manufacturers have changed their dealership practices. Jonathan has struggled with some of the new practices the manufacturers have implemented. These new practices could negatively impact the company’s ability to survive. Jonathan wonders, “What is the best path forward for the business?” Complexity academic level The case is designed to be used in an undergraduate strategic management course.

Like all businesses, family owned businesses feel pressure to conform to management “best practices.” In the case of human resource management, these best practices include committing to the business’s most talented employees and adopting merit-based hiring, promotion, incentive, and retention practices. But, family owners may believe that adopting these practices is not in their best interest. Family owners’ ability to adopt, or resist the adoption of these best practices depends on cultural influences in the countries in which their businesses reside, and their ability to control the management of their businesses. In this study, we examine the effects of three cultural dimensions (cultural assertiveness, institutional collectivism, and power distance) and family managerial control on the human resource management practices that family businesses use. Utilizing cross-cultural and socioemotional wealth arguments, we develop and test hypotheses using a sample of 2827 family businesses in 22 countries. The results indicate that cultural assertiveness and institutional collectivism are related positively to family businesses’ levels of talent commitment and merit-based human resource management, and power distance and the number of family managers were related negatively to businesses’ levels of talent commitment and merit-based human resource management. The study contributes to the cross-cultural and family business literatures.

Synopsis Ned Piper needs to improve the performance of Acme Lumber’s Broken Arrow store. There are two candidates for the store manager’s position, Larry Frazier and Chip Farmer. Larry has worked for Acme for 35 years in a variety of positions and is related to the Johnson family who has owned and managed Acme for three generations. Chip has worked for Acme for 19 years and has successfully helped to turn around another store. Chip is not related to the Johnsons. Ned is feeling pressure from the business and family to make the right decision. Which candidate should he select to become a manager? Research methodology The authors used a case study methodology. Relevant courses and levels Human resources, selection, staffing, and family business management. Theoretical bases Socioemotional wealth perspective, and agency theory.

We study scholarly impact in the entrepreneurship field. To answer the question of which factors predict impact, we focus on understanding how article citation behaviour has changed over 20 years. We apply paradigm development theory and framing concepts to guide our study. We find that the value attached to both an article and the article’s authors has become a greater predictor of article citations over time. Additionally, we find that whether authors’ claim that their articles present interesting or useful ideas predicts article impact. But the nature of the impact differs depending on the type of the claim. The pattern of results suggests that entrepreneurship research may currently be at an intermediate stage of development.

Do cultural factors influence whether individuals invest in new ventures? If so, do cultural factors influence in whose new ventures they invest? When making economic decisions, individuals are embedded in their society's cultural norms. Because countries differ on cultural dimensions, we hypothesize that an individual's culture influences whether he or she invests in new ventures. Additionally, for those who do invest, we hypothesize that their culture influences whether they invest in a family member or nonfamily member's venture. The results generally support our hypotheses and show that different cultural dimensions influence whether an individual invests in a new venture, and whether s/he invests in a family or nonfamily member's new venture. Because family members are one of the greatest sources of capital for entrepreneurs when starting a business, these results may explain the differences in new venture funding rates and new business startup rates between nations.

In this article, we introduce socioemotional selectivity theory (SEST) from psychology to the family business literature. Applying the theory to family businesses, we argue that a family business’s age influences whether it trusts family or professional business advisors most. Consistent with SEST, we find that business age relates to whether the family business emphasizes financial or socioemotional wealth more and that this wealth emphasis relates to whether family members or professional business advisors are trusted most. Based on these findings, we believe that SEST has much to offer to the study of family and nonfamily businesses.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate interactions among members of self-managed teams (SMTs). The authors were interested in how leader emergence, group potency, and opinion compliance were related to team cohesion and member well-being.Design/methodology/approach– In a simulated business environment, the authors surveyed 236 students working in 54 SMTs. Participants reported their interactions and experiences at several points of time during class. Individual responses about team cohesion and group potency were aggregated for the purposes of the analysis.Findings– The paper found that leader emergence was associated with reduced cohesion among members and diminished individual well-being. Group potency was modestly associated with better cohesion among team members. Participants of more cohesive groups reported higher individual well-being. Opposite to the predictions, opinion compliance was not significantly related to individual well-being.Research limitations/implications– Within the limitations of the study design, the results suggest that leader emergence may have adverse effect on team interactions. Future research should investigate the positive and negative implications of an emerging leader in SMTs.Practical implications– The broad application of SMTs in organizations necessitates a critical examination of team dynamics and individual experiences of members. Along with team productivity, managers should consider the effects of team interactions on employees’ well-being. Employees who are drawn to more discretionary work such as SMTs may not favor leader emergence.Originality/value– The findings suggest that leader emergence may have negative implications for other team members and the overall team functioning.

We examine whether a controlling family’s influence in their family business relates to the business’s human resources practices and how the ethical viewpoint of those in control of the business affects this relationship. We find that family influence is positively related to hiring, promotion, and compensation practices that favor family members over nonfamily members. We also find that pro-family compensation practices are positively related to family business owners’ assessment of their business’s ethical stringency. We discuss the potential consequences of family business owners who strongly influence their businesses and knowingly create inequitable compensation practices that favor family employees.

Effectuation represents a paradigmatic shift in the way that we understand entrepreneurship. Since its introduction, however, few researchers have attempted to empirically test effectuation. Our purpose is to encourage effectuation research. To do so, we review the effectuation literature and make suggestions for how to design and conduct empirically rigorous effectuation studies consistent with the developmental state of the research stream.

Family firms are often characterised by fewer information asymmetries and more trusting cultures than are non-family firms. As a result, using agency theory, we argue that family firm leaders will perceive that they derive less benefit from the internet, an information technology that allows companies to reduce their information asymmetries, than leaders from non-family firms. Our findings are consistent with this argument and provide support for the contention that there are fundamental differences between the perceptions of leaders in family and non-family firms.

Among nascent entrepreneurial ventures, are some types of bootstrapping techniques more successful than others? We compare externally oriented and internally oriented techniques with respect to the likelihood of becoming an operational venture; and we compare cash-increasing and cost-decreasing techniques with respect to becoming operational. Using data from the first Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, we find evidence suggesting that when bootstrapping a new venture, the percentage of cash-increasing and cost-decreasing externally oriented bootstrapping techniques that a ventureʼs owners use are positive predictors of subsequent positive cash flow (one and two years later). But, internally oriented techniques are not related to subsequent cash flow.

The entrepreneurʼs experience, personality, and values affect the entrepreneurʼs behaviors and decisions (Chrisman, Bauerschmidt, and Hofer 1998). Past research results show that (1) more experienced new venture founders have a greater likelihood of leading their ventures to early success than less experienced founders (Delmar and Shane 2006) and (2) founders who engage in legitimacy-seeking behaviors have a greater likelihood of leading their ventures to early success than founders who do not do so (Tornikoski and Newbert 2007). We propose that more experienced founders understand the importance of obtaining legitimacy for their ventures and therefore will engage in more legitimacy-seeking behaviors. In addition, we propose that entrepreneursʼ growth aspirations and internal locus of control are also associated with engagement in legitimacy-seeking behaviors. We test and find support for these propositions in a sample of new ventures and their founders.

Entrepreneurship research has been criticized for a lack of methodological rigor, although evidence suggests that from a methodological perspective, it is improving (Davidsson, 2006). In this paper, we systematically review the methods used in the study of nascent entrepreneurs to identify challenges associated with the data used in these studies. We also review the field's achievements - notably, the successful use of representative sampling of populations of nascent entrepreneurs - and we raise concerns about the predominant use of secondary data sets and the use of scales originally developed for large, established firms. Drawing on methodological advancements in other fields, we offer suggestions related to study design, data collection, sampling and measurement. Although some of the challenges we note are inherent to the nature of entrepreneurship, we hope our discussion can help researchers design better studies and better interpret their findings.

When chief executive officers (CEOs) are replaced by external successors, they frequently retain high levels of power. We found that outgoing CEOs' announced post-succession involvement is negatively related to their successors' power. Additionally, we found that the magnitude of the stock market reaction to succession announcements is greater when the outgoing CEOs are allowed to continue to retain significant influence, and diminished when the new CEOs are awarded significant position power when they become CEO. These results suggest that to improve long-term performance, companies should keep outgoing CEOs around and not grant new CEOs too much power. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We compare participation in business associations among family firms based on a firm's level of owning family influence. We find that among family firms, owning family influence is negatively related to business association participation. That is, we find that family firms that are highly influenced by their owning families are less likely to participate in business associations than firms that are influenced less by their owning families. This finding is potentially troubling for highly family influenced firms because we also find that business association participation is positively related to firm performance. Implications of these findings are also presented.