Abstract
Medium and small family firms are a fundamental element for the Italian economic development and wealth. One of the main reasons of failure of this type of firm is the business succession, within the family members. The literature considers the business succession as a natural and progressive phenomenon that is linked to both the long-term survival of the firm and/or an increasing efficiency. Despite the vast literature on the topic, a few studies try to focus further dimensions of the business succession as the role of management accounting systems (MASs) in connection with trust and organizational routines. The aim of the present research is to deepen a process of business succession, with a specific focus on both the inter-generational relationships and their influence on the role played by MASs. A qualitative methodology will be used to conduct a longitudinal case-study, using a deductive-inductive-deductive approach, that is typical of the business administration studies. The expected results of the research concern the identification and definition of the “rational” (tied to the firm “efficiency”) and “familiar” (tied to the trust among family members) discourses and the way in which the MASs are involved in this process. The present study will point out how the inter-generational succession is influenced by both a rational/ deterministic planning and a set of family relationships. Only the whole consideration of those factors would shed light on the functioning of the inter-generational succession and predict its effectivenessReferences
Abernathy, M., Chua, W., (1996) A field study of control system “redesign”: the impact of institutional processes on strategic choice, Contemporary Accounting Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 569-696
Ahrens T., Chapman, C.S. (2007), Management accounting as a practice, Accounting,Organizations and Society, Vol. 32, N. 1, pp. 1-27.
Barners, L.B., Hershon, S.A. (1976), Transferring power in the family business. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 105-114.
Barney, J. (1986), Organisational culture: can it be a source of sustainable competitive advantage?, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11, pp. 656-665.
Berger P.L., Luckmann T., (1967), The Social Construction of Reality, Doubleday, New York.
Baldwin (1978), Power and social exchange, The American Political Science Review, Vol. LXX, pp. 1229-1242.
Burns, J., Scapens, R.W., (2000). Conceptualising management accounting change: an institutional framework. Management Accounting Research. Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 3–25.
Busco, C., Riccaboni, A., Scapens, R.W. (2006), Trust for accounting and accounting for trust. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 11-41.
Chazel F. (1983), Pouvoir, Structure et domination, Revue française de Sociologie, XXIV: 369-393.
Chirico, F., Salvato, C. (2008), Knowledge integration and dynamic organisational adaptation in family firms. Family Business Review, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 169-181.
Chrisman, J.J., Chua, J.H., Kellermanns, F.W., & Chang, E.P.C. (2007). Are family managers agents or stewards? An exploratory study in privately held family firms. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 60, pp. 1030–1038.
Chua J.H., Chrisman J.J., Chang E.P.C. (2004) Are Family Firms Born or Made? An Exploratory Investigation Family Business Review Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 37–54.
Chua, J.H., Chrisman, J.J., & Bergiel, E.B. (2009). An agency theoretic analysis of the professionalized family firm. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 33, pp. 355–372.
Crozier M. (1964), Le phénomène bureaucratique, Du Seuil, Paris.
Crozier M. (1971), La societé bloquée, Du Seuil, Paris.
Cyert R. M., March J. G. (1963), A behavioural Theory of the Firm, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Dhal R. (1957), The concept of power, Behavioural Sciences, Vol. II, pp. 201-215.
De Hass M., Algera J.A. (2002), Demonstrating the effect of strategic dialogue: participation in designing management control systems. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 13, pp. 41-69.
De Massis, A., Chua, J.H., Chrisman J.J. (2008), Factors preventing intra-family succession. Family Business Review, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 183-199.
Dyer, W.G. jr. (2003), The Family: The Missing Variable in Organisational Research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 401-416.
Feltham, T.S., Feltham, G., Barnett, J.J. (2005), The dependence of family businesses on single decision-maker. Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 43 No. 1, pp. 1-15.
Friedberg E. (1994), Il potere e la regola – Dinamiche dell’azione organizzata, Etaslibri, Milano.
Gersick, C., Hackman, J.R. (1990), Habitual routines in task performing groups.Organisational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 47, pp. 65-97.
Guth, W.D., Ginsberg, A. (1990), Guest editors’ introduction: Corporate entrepreneurship, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11, No.1, pp. 5-15.
Huber, G.P. (1991), Organisational learning: the contributing processes and the literatures. Organisation Science. Vol. 2, pp. 52-62.
Handler, W. C (1990), Succession in family firms: a mutual role adjustment between owner-manager and next-generation family members. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 37-51.
Hinings B., Greenwood R., (1988), “The normative prescription of organisations”, in Zucker L. G. (a cura di), Institutional patterns and organisations: Culture and environment, Ballinger, Cambridge (MA): pp. 53-70.
Hopwood, A. (1992), Accounting calculation and the shifting sphere of the economic, European Accounting Review, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 125-143.
Kelly L.M., Athanassiou N. Crittenden W.F. (2000), Founder centrality and strategic behavior in family-owned firm. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Winter, pp. 27-42.
Kets and Vries, M.F.R. (1993), The dynamics of family controlled firms: the good news and the bad news. Organisational Dynamics. Vol. 21, No. Winter, pp. 59-71.
Laughlin, R. (1991), “Environmental Disturbances and Organisational Transitions and Transformations: Some Alternative Models”, Organisation Studies, Vol.12, No.2, pp.209-232.
Le Breton-Miller, I., Miller, D., Steier L. (2004), Towards an integrative model of effective FOB succession. Entreprenuership Theory and Practice. Summer, pp. 305-328.
Luhmann, N., (1979). Trust and Power. John-Wiley, Chichester.
March J. G. (1962), The business firm as a political coalition, Journal of Politics, Vol. 24, pp. 662-678.
Matlay, H. (2000), Organisational learning in small learning organisations: an empirical overview, Education and Training, Vol. 42 No. 4/5, pp. 202-211.
Matthews, C., Moore, T.W., Fialko, A.S. (1999), Succession in family firm: A cognitive categorization perspective. Family Business Review, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 159-169.
McConaughy D. L. (2000), Family CEO vs. non family CEOs in the family controlled firm: An examination of the level and sensitivity of pay to performance. Family Business
Review, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 121-131.
Meyer J. W., Rowan B. (1977), “Institutionalized Organisations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony”, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, No 2: pp. 340-363
Meyer J. W., Rowan B. (1993), “The Structure of Educational Organisations”, in Meyer J. W., Scott W. R. (a cura di), Organisational environment Ritual and rationality, Sage, Beverly
Hills (CA): pp. 71-98
Meyer J., Scott R., Strang D. (1987), “Centralization, Fragmentation, and School District complexity”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2: pp. 186-201
Meyer J.W., Scott W.R., Deal T.F., (1993), “Institutional and technical sources of organisational structure. Explaning the structure of educational organisations”, in Meyer J.W., Scott W.R. (a cura di), Organisational environment Ritual and rationality, Sage, Beverly Hills (CA): pp. 45-67
Nelson, R.R., Winter, S.G., (1982). An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Harvard University Press, Boston.
Pearson, A.W. & Marler, L.E. (2010). A leadership perspective of reciprocal stewardship in family firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 34, pp. 1117–1123.
Provan K. G. (1980), Recognizing, Measuring and Interpreting the potential/enacted Power distinction in Orgamizational Research, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 4 No.5, pp. 549-559.
Salancick G. R., Pfeffer J. (1977), Who Gests Power – And How They Hold on to It: A Strategic-Contingency Model of Power, Organisational Dynamics, Winter, pp. 3-21.
Scapens, R.W., Roberts, J., (1993). Accounting and control: a case study of resistance to accounting and change. Management Accounting Research. Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 1–32.
Scapens, R.W., 1994. Never mind the gap: towards an institutional perspective on management accounting practice. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 301–
321.
Schein E.H. (1983), The role of the founder in the creation of organisational culture. Organisational Dynamics, Vol. 12, pp. 13-28.
Scott W. R., (1987), Organisations Rational natural and open systems, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Chffs, NJ.
Scott W. R., Meyer J. W., (1983), The Organisational of societal sectors, in Meyer J. W., Scott W. R. (a cura di), Organisational environments: Ritual and rationality, Sage, Beverly Hills (CA): pp. 129-153.
Selznick A. (1957), Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, Harper & Row, New York.
Selznick P. (1949), TVA and the Grass Roots, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Selznick P. (1970), Law, Society and Individual Justice, Russel Sage Found, New York.
Shanker, M.C., Astrachan, J.H. (1996), Myths and realities: Family businesses’ contribution to the U.S. economy. Family Business Review, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 107-119.
Sharma, P., Chrisman, J.J. and Chua, J.H. (1996), A review and annotated bibliography of family business studies. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Boston, MA.
Singh J. V., Tucker D.J., House R. J. (1986), “Organisational legitimacy and the liability of newness”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 2: pp. 171-193.
Steier, L. (2001), Next-Generation Owner-managers and Succession: An Exploratory Study of Modes and Means of Managing Social Capital. Family Business Review, Vol. 14 No.
3, pp. 259-276.
Steier, L. (2001). Family firms, plural forms of governance, and the evolving role of trust. Family Business Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 353–367.
Sundaramurthy, C. (2008). Sustaining trust within family businesses. Family Business Review, Vol. 21, pp. 89–102.
Tolbert P. S., Zucker L. G. (1983), Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organisations: the diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935, Administrative Science
Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1: pp. 22-39.
Venter, E., Boshoff, C., Maas, G. (2005), The influence of Successor-related factors on the succession process in small and medium sized family business. Family Business Review, Vol.
18 No. 4, pp. 283-303.
Ward, J.L. (1987), Keeping the Family Business Healthy, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.
Webb, E.J., 1996.Trust and crisis. In: Kramer, R.M.,Tyler,T.R. (Eds.), Trust in Organisations Frontiers of Theory and Research. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, pp. 288–301
Wong, K.Y., Aspinwall, E. (2004), Characterizing knowledge management in the small business environment. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(3), 44-61.
Zucker L. G. (1977), “The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 42, No. 5: pp. 726-743.
Zucker L. G. (1988), Institutional Patterns and Organisations: Culture and Environment, Ballinger, Cambridge (MA).
Ahrens T., Chapman, C.S. (2007), Management accounting as a practice, Accounting,Organizations and Society, Vol. 32, N. 1, pp. 1-27.
Barners, L.B., Hershon, S.A. (1976), Transferring power in the family business. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 105-114.
Barney, J. (1986), Organisational culture: can it be a source of sustainable competitive advantage?, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11, pp. 656-665.
Berger P.L., Luckmann T., (1967), The Social Construction of Reality, Doubleday, New York.
Baldwin (1978), Power and social exchange, The American Political Science Review, Vol. LXX, pp. 1229-1242.
Burns, J., Scapens, R.W., (2000). Conceptualising management accounting change: an institutional framework. Management Accounting Research. Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 3–25.
Busco, C., Riccaboni, A., Scapens, R.W. (2006), Trust for accounting and accounting for trust. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 11-41.
Chazel F. (1983), Pouvoir, Structure et domination, Revue française de Sociologie, XXIV: 369-393.
Chirico, F., Salvato, C. (2008), Knowledge integration and dynamic organisational adaptation in family firms. Family Business Review, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 169-181.
Chrisman, J.J., Chua, J.H., Kellermanns, F.W., & Chang, E.P.C. (2007). Are family managers agents or stewards? An exploratory study in privately held family firms. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 60, pp. 1030–1038.
Chua J.H., Chrisman J.J., Chang E.P.C. (2004) Are Family Firms Born or Made? An Exploratory Investigation Family Business Review Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 37–54.
Chua, J.H., Chrisman, J.J., & Bergiel, E.B. (2009). An agency theoretic analysis of the professionalized family firm. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 33, pp. 355–372.
Crozier M. (1964), Le phénomène bureaucratique, Du Seuil, Paris.
Crozier M. (1971), La societé bloquée, Du Seuil, Paris.
Cyert R. M., March J. G. (1963), A behavioural Theory of the Firm, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Dhal R. (1957), The concept of power, Behavioural Sciences, Vol. II, pp. 201-215.
De Hass M., Algera J.A. (2002), Demonstrating the effect of strategic dialogue: participation in designing management control systems. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 13, pp. 41-69.
De Massis, A., Chua, J.H., Chrisman J.J. (2008), Factors preventing intra-family succession. Family Business Review, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 183-199.
Dyer, W.G. jr. (2003), The Family: The Missing Variable in Organisational Research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 401-416.
Feltham, T.S., Feltham, G., Barnett, J.J. (2005), The dependence of family businesses on single decision-maker. Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 43 No. 1, pp. 1-15.
Friedberg E. (1994), Il potere e la regola – Dinamiche dell’azione organizzata, Etaslibri, Milano.
Gersick, C., Hackman, J.R. (1990), Habitual routines in task performing groups.Organisational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 47, pp. 65-97.
Guth, W.D., Ginsberg, A. (1990), Guest editors’ introduction: Corporate entrepreneurship, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11, No.1, pp. 5-15.
Huber, G.P. (1991), Organisational learning: the contributing processes and the literatures. Organisation Science. Vol. 2, pp. 52-62.
Handler, W. C (1990), Succession in family firms: a mutual role adjustment between owner-manager and next-generation family members. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 37-51.
Hinings B., Greenwood R., (1988), “The normative prescription of organisations”, in Zucker L. G. (a cura di), Institutional patterns and organisations: Culture and environment, Ballinger, Cambridge (MA): pp. 53-70.
Hopwood, A. (1992), Accounting calculation and the shifting sphere of the economic, European Accounting Review, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 125-143.
Kelly L.M., Athanassiou N. Crittenden W.F. (2000), Founder centrality and strategic behavior in family-owned firm. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Winter, pp. 27-42.
Kets and Vries, M.F.R. (1993), The dynamics of family controlled firms: the good news and the bad news. Organisational Dynamics. Vol. 21, No. Winter, pp. 59-71.
Laughlin, R. (1991), “Environmental Disturbances and Organisational Transitions and Transformations: Some Alternative Models”, Organisation Studies, Vol.12, No.2, pp.209-232.
Le Breton-Miller, I., Miller, D., Steier L. (2004), Towards an integrative model of effective FOB succession. Entreprenuership Theory and Practice. Summer, pp. 305-328.
Luhmann, N., (1979). Trust and Power. John-Wiley, Chichester.
March J. G. (1962), The business firm as a political coalition, Journal of Politics, Vol. 24, pp. 662-678.
Matlay, H. (2000), Organisational learning in small learning organisations: an empirical overview, Education and Training, Vol. 42 No. 4/5, pp. 202-211.
Matthews, C., Moore, T.W., Fialko, A.S. (1999), Succession in family firm: A cognitive categorization perspective. Family Business Review, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 159-169.
McConaughy D. L. (2000), Family CEO vs. non family CEOs in the family controlled firm: An examination of the level and sensitivity of pay to performance. Family Business
Review, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 121-131.
Meyer J. W., Rowan B. (1977), “Institutionalized Organisations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony”, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, No 2: pp. 340-363
Meyer J. W., Rowan B. (1993), “The Structure of Educational Organisations”, in Meyer J. W., Scott W. R. (a cura di), Organisational environment Ritual and rationality, Sage, Beverly
Hills (CA): pp. 71-98
Meyer J., Scott R., Strang D. (1987), “Centralization, Fragmentation, and School District complexity”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2: pp. 186-201
Meyer J.W., Scott W.R., Deal T.F., (1993), “Institutional and technical sources of organisational structure. Explaning the structure of educational organisations”, in Meyer J.W., Scott W.R. (a cura di), Organisational environment Ritual and rationality, Sage, Beverly Hills (CA): pp. 45-67
Nelson, R.R., Winter, S.G., (1982). An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Harvard University Press, Boston.
Pearson, A.W. & Marler, L.E. (2010). A leadership perspective of reciprocal stewardship in family firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 34, pp. 1117–1123.
Provan K. G. (1980), Recognizing, Measuring and Interpreting the potential/enacted Power distinction in Orgamizational Research, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 4 No.5, pp. 549-559.
Salancick G. R., Pfeffer J. (1977), Who Gests Power – And How They Hold on to It: A Strategic-Contingency Model of Power, Organisational Dynamics, Winter, pp. 3-21.
Scapens, R.W., Roberts, J., (1993). Accounting and control: a case study of resistance to accounting and change. Management Accounting Research. Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 1–32.
Scapens, R.W., 1994. Never mind the gap: towards an institutional perspective on management accounting practice. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 301–
321.
Schein E.H. (1983), The role of the founder in the creation of organisational culture. Organisational Dynamics, Vol. 12, pp. 13-28.
Scott W. R., (1987), Organisations Rational natural and open systems, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Chffs, NJ.
Scott W. R., Meyer J. W., (1983), The Organisational of societal sectors, in Meyer J. W., Scott W. R. (a cura di), Organisational environments: Ritual and rationality, Sage, Beverly Hills (CA): pp. 129-153.
Selznick A. (1957), Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, Harper & Row, New York.
Selznick P. (1949), TVA and the Grass Roots, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Selznick P. (1970), Law, Society and Individual Justice, Russel Sage Found, New York.
Shanker, M.C., Astrachan, J.H. (1996), Myths and realities: Family businesses’ contribution to the U.S. economy. Family Business Review, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 107-119.
Sharma, P., Chrisman, J.J. and Chua, J.H. (1996), A review and annotated bibliography of family business studies. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Boston, MA.
Singh J. V., Tucker D.J., House R. J. (1986), “Organisational legitimacy and the liability of newness”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 2: pp. 171-193.
Steier, L. (2001), Next-Generation Owner-managers and Succession: An Exploratory Study of Modes and Means of Managing Social Capital. Family Business Review, Vol. 14 No.
3, pp. 259-276.
Steier, L. (2001). Family firms, plural forms of governance, and the evolving role of trust. Family Business Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 353–367.
Sundaramurthy, C. (2008). Sustaining trust within family businesses. Family Business Review, Vol. 21, pp. 89–102.
Tolbert P. S., Zucker L. G. (1983), Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organisations: the diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935, Administrative Science
Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1: pp. 22-39.
Venter, E., Boshoff, C., Maas, G. (2005), The influence of Successor-related factors on the succession process in small and medium sized family business. Family Business Review, Vol.
18 No. 4, pp. 283-303.
Ward, J.L. (1987), Keeping the Family Business Healthy, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.
Webb, E.J., 1996.Trust and crisis. In: Kramer, R.M.,Tyler,T.R. (Eds.), Trust in Organisations Frontiers of Theory and Research. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, pp. 288–301
Wong, K.Y., Aspinwall, E. (2004), Characterizing knowledge management in the small business environment. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(3), 44-61.
Zucker L. G. (1977), “The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 42, No. 5: pp. 726-743.
Zucker L. G. (1988), Institutional Patterns and Organisations: Culture and Environment, Ballinger, Cambridge (MA).
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