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Project

The professionalization process in private family firms: Scale development, identifying the conditions of professionalization, and determining the effects it has on firm outcome (R-4093)

When the process of professionalization is studied within a family firm context, researchers tend to oversimplify this concept. More precise, there is a tendency to equate professional managers with external, nonfamily managers. A consequence of this statement is that family members inherently become nonprofessional managers. This disregards all family members that do act as professional managers in their family business. Scholars in the field have pointed out that there is more to professionalization than having nonfamily managers. However, they lack a proper and valid definition of this concept. Also, the other dimensions which are implicitly or explicitly entailed by the concept of professionalization remain fuzzy. During my postdoctoral research I want to contribute to the field by determining the different dimensions of professionalization within the family firm context. Further, I want to provide the researchers with a measurement scale based on these dimensions that allows future research to identify the exact professionalization level of family businesses. Finally, once the professionalization can be properly measured, I want to identify the conditions that cause a firm to professionalize and determine the effect that this professionalization has on firm outcomes. These are the different facets that I want to address regarding the general question: "What is professionalization within a family business?".
Date:1 Oct 2012 →  31 Aug 2014
Keywords:Family firms
Disciplines:Economics and business