In this illuminating casebook, Roland Kidwell brings together eminent scholars and researchers, showcasing real-world examples of family businesses and potential challenges they may face. Chapters encapsulate possible tensions that may manifest within family businesses, including sibling rivalry, intergenerational conflict, and clashing ideas about work ethic. Ultimately, the authors propose that it is essential for stakeholders and those in leadership to understand what techniques, policies and behaviors do, and indeed do not, work in family firms.
Key Features:
Contains learning notes at the end of each case to summarize key ideas and structure scholarly learning
Includes cases from several different countries, giving this fascinating book international scope
Provides genuine testimonies from those involved in family businesses to illustrate potential threats to company harmony and firm survival.
This casebook is vital for those teaching and studying business and leadership, corporate governance, and family business. Family business advisors and those working in family business centers will additionally benefit from the practical scenarios illustrated throughout the book.
Contents
Introduction: dealing with the dark side of family firms, case by case 1
Roland E. Kidwell
PART I FAMILY FIGHTS: PARENTS, CHILDREN AND SIBLINGS
1 Navigating relational rifts and communication clashes in the Peyton
family firm 9
Gaia Marchisio, Eric R. Kushins and Robert Randolph
2 Brotherly battles at Brew Corp: “family firms should be forbidden
by law” 26
Dagmar Y. Hattenberg, Erik Veldhuizen and Judith van Helvert
3 Feuding siblings: sowing the seeds of conflict in the family business 38
Unai Arzubiaga, Amaia Maseda and Javier Macías
4 Tuskys Supermarkets: the good, the bad and the ugly in the Kago
family business 49
William Murithi and Sally Kah
5 Stahlmann GmbH: everything lost due to intergenerational conflict 63
Sandra Fiedler
6 Dee Doks’ family business conflicts: culture or nurture? 73
Folashade O. Akinyemi
PART II SUCCESSION STRUGGLES (AND SUCCESSES): THE NEXT
GENERATIONS
7 Schmidt Print and Media – a family business in upheaval 87
Christopher Khoury, Christine Keller and Nadine Kammerlander
8 Heladería Roma: challenges of succession in a climate of distrust 96
Pablo Álamo and Unai Arzubiaga
9 RAJ General Supplies Limited: three daughters take over the family
business 111
William Murithi and Karumba Kinyua
10 Preventing history from repeating itself: the succession process at
De Berg 121
Astrid Kramer and Miranda Stienstra
PART III CORPORATE GOVERNANCE – OR LACK THEREOF
11 The Johnsons unveiled: a family’s clash of values, business, and
philanthropy 128
Małgorzata Smulowitz and Peter Vogel
12 The past catches up with everyone: legal failures of the previous
generation threaten a family firm’s future 138
Jan Klaus Tänzler and Annegret Hauer
13 Sport sponsoring at Royal Jumbo Food Group: a double-edged sword 147
Miranda Stienstra, Astrid Kramer and Ties van Daal
14 The enemy at home: diversification and professionalization at BOMBE 156
María Jesús Hernández-Ortiz, Manuel Carlos Vallejo-Martos,
Myriam Cano-Rubio and Francisca Panadés-Zamora
PART IV BAD BEHAVIOR IN THE FAMILY BUSINESS
15 Landscape Plus 169
Steve Gaklis
16 Jacobson Hardware Store: overcoming conflict, dysfunction, and
death in a family business 183
John James Cater III
17 Lost in transitions? 194
Cristina Alvarado-Alvarez and Martin C. Euwema
18 Frutas y Verduras San Miguel: gambling with the future of the family firm 200
Pablo Álamo and Unai Arzubiaga
19 Blinded by trust: a cousin’s fraud threatens a family business 212
Ellison Howard
Afterword 219
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