Entrepreneurship in Family Firms and Beyond

To explain family firms‘ generation-spanning success, scholars have increasingly been investigating entrepreneurship-related phenomena as corresponding antecedents. Entrepreneurship research beyond the family firm context has been growing significantly over the last decades as well. In both areas, however, numerous important research gaps exist. Referring to entrepreneurship in the family firm context, there is a need to enrich literature on succession/transgenerational entrepreneurship, portfolio entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial strategies and orientations. In the general entrepreneurship context, further insights are needed into employees’ entrepreneurial behavior and individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions. The six journal articles, two conference papers, and two book chapters that are included in this Cumulative Postdoctoral Thesis address those gaps and provide valuable contributions to the respective bodies of literature. As a whole, the publications significantly advance existing knowledge in two very relevant academic fields and open up promising avenues for future research.

Seclusion of children and adolescents: Psychopathological and family factors

This paper describes the use of seclusion in a child and adolescent inpatient unit, including precipitating events, management strategies, details of seclusion episodes and individual and family risk factors. Inpatient ward documentation of seclusion episodes, demographic data and measures of individual psychopathology and impairment, parent mental health, life events and family functioning were used to compare secluded, non-secluded and outpatient groups. Secluded individuals had elevated psychopathology compared with non-secluded inpatients and outpatients. Their families reported poorer parental mental health and family functioning and more recent stressful life events. The results indicate that seclusion is most common among high-risk inpatients.

Introducing evidence-based family assessment and therapy in child and youth mental health services: Applying systemic principles to maintain, sustain and build capacity

The purpose of this article is to overview the context of the mental health service in which we work, and family therapy's status prior to and after the impact of changes wrought by the introduction of the National Mental Health Policy. We then explore some key issues that we think contribute to the persistence of the occlusion of family therapy in child psychiatric services; and the strategies that we developed and are continuing to develop to support change, finally, we describe the use of a family assessment instrument that we believe is central to our change strategy.

Effects of two intervention strategies on the behavior of nurses and nurse students related to advance directives

Advance directives are one mechanism for preserving the rights of individuals to exercise some control over their health care when serious illness may prevent them from direct participation. Nurses, as the health care providers with the closest and most sustained contact with critically ill and dying patients, are positioned to assist patients to plan for future health care needs. Although a majority of nurses favor the concept of advance directives for their patients and for themselves, they have not played a significant role in facilitating advance health care planning with their patients nor implemented advance health care planning for themselves.^ Research has also shown that differing forms of education and counseling increase the completion rates for advance directives in selected populations, mostly the elderly and seriously ill. Not yet developed are effective educational strategies to assist nurses and nurse students to make optimal contributions in assisting their clients' plans for future health care decision-making. This study sought to determine whether specific learning strategies (a) increased the involvement of nurses and nurse students in facilitating advance care planning with patients and (b) increased the percentage of the nurses' and nurse students' own personal advance care planning activities.^ The study compared two learning interventions and two populations, nurses and nurse students. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the two learning interventions, L1 or L2. Participants in L1 received a lecture, discussion and exploration of the forces impacting on advance directive behavior. Participants in L2 received the same intervention components with the additional component of group practice completing advance directives.^ Analysis of the data by chi-square and logistic regression did not support the hypotheses that the practice component would make a difference in the participants' facilitation of advance care planning with patients or in their own personal advance care planning activities. There were significant differences in post-intervention behavior between the nurse and nurse student groups. The nurses in the study did significantly more facilitation of advance care planning with patients and completed significantly more advance care documents than the nurse students post-intervention. However, the nurse students held more post-intervention family discussions than did the nurses. ^

A generational analysis of survival strategies of Southern rural Black women

This study examines cross-generational survival strategies, among Southern Rural Black women. Through their oral histories, the currents that run through the lives of five women will be examined from a Black female's perspective. While the experiences are richly different across four generations, these women have provided for their families despite the triple discrimination of being female, poor, and Black. Three important survival resources are identified: kin, education, and religion. The mothering role emerged as a master status with special emphasis on the mother-daughter relationship. ^

The effects of a family-based educational intervention on the prevention of lead poisoning in children

The effects of lead exposure may endure through one's lifetime and can negatively effect educational performance. While the link between the cause and effects of lead poisoning has been identified, the application of lead health education as the mechanism of disease prevention has not. The purpose of this study was to examine whether caregiver participation in a family-based educational intervention can result in decreased lead exposure in low socioeconomic children. ^ Participants (n = 50) were caregivers of children 12 to 36 months of age. They were randomly selected from an urban clinic and randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. The experimental design of this study involved two clinic visits. Parents in the treatment group were given the educational intervention during the first clinic visit while those in the control group were given the intervention during the second clinic visit. The intervention was reinforced with a lead education brochure coupled with a video on childhood lead poisoning. One instrument was used to test parental knowledge of lead poisoning both pre- and post-intervention. Blood lead levels in pediatric participants were tested using two blood lead screens approximately three to four months apart determined by well-child check-up schedules. ^ Findings from the analysis of variance showed the interaction between the change in blood lead level between the children's first and second clinic visits and the treatment level. This demonstrated a significant interaction between the differences of first and second clinic visits blood lead levels and the presence or absence of the educational intervention. ^ The findings from an analysis of covariance support that caregivers in the treatment group have significantly higher scores on the second clinic visit scores on the CLKT than the caregivers in the control group. These data suggest that the educational treatment is effective in increasing the knowledge of caregivers about the dangers of lead poisoning and the strategies for lead poisoning prevention. ^ Conclusions indicate that the education of adult caregivers can affect blood lead levels of children, the educational treatment increased the knowledge of caregivers, caregivers were able to carry out procedures taught, and caregivers retained knowledge over time. ^

Women graduates' academic resilience and their personal strategies for doctoral success

This study explores women's perceptions of what made them successful doctoral students and what strategies they used to cope and succeed in the academic environment of an off-campus program in South Florida. The study's theoretical framework was built on Bandura's (1997) theory regarding ways self-efficacy influences choices made and effort expended; and Gilligan (1982), Belenky et al. (1986) and other feminists' theories concerning how women learn. ^ The study included data obtained from individual, semi-structured interviews with 10 participants, documents spanning the 10 years of the program and interviews with founding faculty members. For each, academic resilience was built on (a) viewing that working on the degree was personally fulfilling; (b) believing she possessed a strong sense of academic confidence; (c) priding herself on having self discipline; (d) seeing herself as a role model; and (e) being motivated by a personal or career goal. ^ Strategies the participants used to overcome roadblocks included (a) time management—finding time for personal, professional, and academic duties; (b) focus—making the dissertation a priority; (c) collaboration—utilizing both personal and programmatic assistance; (d) and advocacy—acting on their individual needs. ^ Results of the study indicated that the program at the satellite campus provided structural resources that satisfied basic needs and strengthened the students' self-efficacy. This helped them become successful doctoral graduates. The women had personal fortitude and strong self-efficacy to complete the doctoral journey. They understood that their success was primarily based on the support they received from people: families, peers, and their major professors. Participants suggested that successful women students ascertain whether they have time and resources to devote to an extended study, an understanding family, and the resilience to overcome roadblocks along the way. ^

It Takes a Village to Educate a Child: Guiding Parents on How to Implement FCAT Strategies With Their Children During Home Learning

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of parental involvement on students' academic achievement. This research further proposes to investigate the effects that reading comprehension workshops for parents will have on the level of their involvement. Moreover, results from the study will contribute to the establishment of effective structures of family involvement. The following research questions will guide the study: Is there an increase in parents' confidence in their abilities to help their child in school as a result of parent workshops? Will there be a gain in parents' understanding of FCAT strategies through the use of parent workshops? Will there be an improvement in students' test scores because of parental involvement in parent workshops?

Social-cognitive antecedents of ambidextrous orientation in family-owned startups: The role of family ties, achievement motivation, and internal locus of control

Regulatory Focus Theory predicts that the motivation to self-regulate goal-directed thought and behavior depends on two distinct regulation strategies: a promotion focus based on attaining gains and a prevention focus based on avoiding losses. This study took a social-cognitive approach predicting that regulatory focus has an impact on how family startups (several family related founders) explore "new ideas", exploit "old certainties" and achieve the balance of both (ambidexterity), compared to lone founder startups (only one founder present). It was proposed that the social context of family ties among founders leads them to a prevention focus concerned with avoiding the loss of the socio-emotional benefits of those ties. In order to avoid such a loss, family founders were expected to increase their risk perceptions and thus, explore less than lone founders, who lack such socio-emotional ties. It was also proposed that two commonly used psychological traits in entrepreneurship research —achievement motivation and internal locus of control, predispose entrepreneurs to a promotion focus. Founders with a promotion focus, in turn, were hypothesized to lead startups to more risk-seeking behaviors and to more explorative orientation. The previous argument was used as a springboard to derive hypotheses about ambidexterity (the ability to exploit and explore simultaneously) and survival hazards. Using Regulatory Focus Theory, exploitative orientation, conceptualized as the motivational strength to continue on previous paths of action, was hypothesized to be not significantly different from that of lone founder startups. Taking previous arguments together, lone founder startups were hypothesized to be more ambidextrous than family startups. Finally, ambidexterity and internal locus of control were hypothesized to reduce survival hazards in family startups. The findings suggested that family startups explore less than lone founder startups even after controlling for group effects. Interesting but contradictory findings revealed that internal locus of control have both a positive direct effect and a positive interaction that increases the explorative and ambidextrous orientation gap of family startups over lone founder startups. As expected, ambidexterity and internal locus of control reduced survival hazards on family startups. Implications for practitioners were derived based on a sample of 470 nascent entrepreneurs.

Bioengineering strategies to improve functional qualities of nisin

The abuse of antibiotics and the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacterial strains have created the need to explore alternative methods of controlling microbial pathogens. The bacteriocin family of antimicrobial peptides has been proposed as one such alternative to classic antibiotics. Nisin A belongs to the subgroup of bacteriocins called the lantibiotics, which contain several unusual amino acids as a consequence of enzyme-mediated post-translational modifications. As nisin is produced by generally regarded as safe (GRAS) microorganisms, it could potentially be applied in a clinical setting. However, as lantibiotics are naturally produced in such small quantities, this can hinder their industrial potential. In order to overcome this, several approaches can be utilised. For example, given the gene encoded nature of lantibiotics, genetic engineering approaches can be implemented in order to yield variants with enhanced properties. Here, the use of mutagenesis-based strategies was employed to obtain a derivative of nisin with enhanced bioactivity in vitro. Investigations with purified peptide highlighted the enhanced specific activity of this variant, nisin M21V, against food-borne Listeria monocytogenes strains. Furthermore, this specific enhanced bioactivity was evident in a mouse model of listeriosis. Reductions in bioluminescence and microbial counts in organs from infected mice were observed following treatment with nisin M21V compared to that of wild-type nisin A. Peptide bioengineering approaches were also implemented to obtain additional novel derivatives of nisin. The generation of “S5X” and “S33X” banks (representing a change of natural serines at positions 5 and 33 to all possible alternative residues) by a combination of site-saturation and site-directed mutagenesis led to the identification of several derivatives exhibiting improved stability. This allowed the rational design of variants with enhanced stability compared to that of wild type nisin. Another means of tackling issues associated with lantibiotic yield is to combine lantibiotics with other antimicrobials. This could circumvent the need for enhanced production while also reducing concentrations of the peptide antimicrobials. We observed that combinations of nisin variants and low levels of plant essential oils (thymol, carvacrol, trans-cinnamaldehyde) significantly controlled Gram negative foodborne pathogens in in vitro assays compared to nisin A-essential oil combinations. This enhanced control was also evident in model food systems. Nisin variants used in conjunction with carvacrol significantly reduced numbers of E. coli O157:H7 in apple juice while a commercial nisin preparation used in combination with citric acid significantly controlled C. sakazakii in infant milk formula. It is noteworthy that while nisin is generally associated with Gram positive targets, upon combination with plant essential oils the spectrum of inhibition was broadened to Gram negative targets.

Social Media Strategies in the Retail Sector: Analysis and Recommendations for Three Multi-National Retailers

During the last twenty years (1995-2015), the world of commerce has expanded beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar high street to a global shop front accessible to billions of users via the Worldwide Web (WWW). Consumers are now using the web to immerse themselves in virtual shop fronts, using Social Media (SM) to communicate and share product ideas with friends and family. Retail organisations recognise the need to develop and adapt their strategies to respond to the increasing use of SM. New goals must be set in order to identify how companies will integrate social media into current practices. This research aims to suggest an advisable and comprehensive SM strategy for companies operating in the global retail sector, based on an exploratory analysis of three multi-national retail organisations' existing SM strategies. This will be assessed in conjunction with a broader investigation into social media in the retail industry. From this, a strategy will be devised to improve internal and external communication as well as knowledge management through the use of social media. Findings suggest that the use of SM within the retail industry has dramatically improved collaboration and communication processes for organisations as they are now able to converse better with stakeholders and the tools are relatively simple to integrate and implement as they benefit one another.

Return Migration in the Ecuadorian and Bolivian population: motivations, strategies and discourses

This article analyses the motivations for return migration among the Ecuadorians and Bolivians who, after living in Spain, returned to their countries of origin during the economic crisis that started in 2008. From the analysis of 22 interviews in-depth which took place in Ecuador and 38 in Bolivia to women, men and young people from migrant families, this decision-making process is shown to be embedded into a gendered dynamics of relationships. Particular detail is given to affective and economic elements that had an influence on the decision to return, as well as to the strategies deployed to project their readjustment back in origin. Males and females occupy differential positions within the family, work and social circle, their expectations being built in a gendered manner. Despite the fact migration has brought women greater economic power within the family group, their reintegration upon return redefines their role as main managers in the household and the dynamics that allow their social reproduction. Men, for their part, aspire to refresh their role as providers in spite of their frail labour position upon return. Social mobility for females is passed on through generations by a strong investment on education for their daughters and sons, while for males this mobility revolves around setting up family businesses and around their demonstrative abilities.

Weaving Futures. Family Transnationalism in the migration from Dominican Republic and Brazil to Spain

This article explores forms of migrant families’ reorganization within a (new) global economic crisis and the hardening of migration control in Europe; based on the cases of Dominican and Brazilian migration to Spain.Our goal is not to characterize the wholeness of strategies from these collectives, instead visualize its heterogeneity. Displacement of Dominican and Brazilian population to Spain shares the role of women as the first link of migration chains. In both cases women are the economic support of transnational families and they lead reunification's processes. Nevertheless, differences in the time spent in the destination country, migratory status, origin (rural-urban), level of education, class and labor insertion in destination country, affect differently, the planning and start up of migration projects, the organization of care and family reunification strategies. These findings question the predominant place granted to national origin in the study of international migration.

Fecal androgen levels in common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) males living in captive family groups

In captive common marmoset groups, the reproductive inhibition observed in subordinate female seems to be a result of olfactory, visual and behavioral cues from the dominant female. However, few studies have examined the relationship among adult males living in the same social group. These studies have shown that reproductive failure among peer males seems to be based on hormonal and behavioral mechanisms. New insights on sexual strategies in primates have been shown using fecal steroids, but so far no information is available for common marmoset males. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of light-dark cycle, age and reproductive condition on the profile of fecal androgens in males living in the same family group. Feces were collected from six fathers and six sons for androgen determination during the light phase of the 24-h cycle for eight days randomly distributed over a 4-week period. Androgen levels were determined by enzyme immunoassay technique. Adult sons showed higher androgen levels (166.97 ± 22.95 ng/g) than fathers (80.69 ± 44.38 ng/g) and juveniles (49.06 ± 23.15 ng/g; P < 0.05). No diurnal variation (P > 0.05) in fecal androgen profile was observed in adults or juveniles. No indication of androgen-mediated social competition between fathers and adult sons was demonstrable. These results provide basic information on fecal androgen profile useful to investigate the socioendocrinology of free-ranging common marmoset males and verify that, in contrast to daughters, the reproductive suppression of sons is not based on physiological inhibition of their gonads

Perceptions of the role of the man in family planning, during pregnancy and childbirth : A qualitative study with fifteen Nepali men

Introduction: In Nepal, by tradition, family life and marriage are generally controlled by patriarchal norms, sanctions, values and gender differences. Women in Nepal have limited possibilities to make decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health, as the husbands and other elders in the family make most of the decisions regarding family planning, pregnancy and childbirth. Aim: To describe the perceptions of Nepali men regarding the role of the man with respect to family planning, pregnancy and childbirth. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with 15 Nepali men in both urban and rural areas. The material was analyzed through inductive content analysis. Findings: One main category and two generic categories were identified. One generic category contained six subcategories and the other five subcategories. The main category was labeled: “He leads – She follows” and the generic categories were labeled: “Supporting women in family planning, during pregnancy and childbirth” and “Withdrawal from supporting women in family planning, during pregnancy and childbirth”. Conclusion: The role of the Nepali men with respect to family planning, pregnancy and childbirth, was identified as a conflicted approach. This study highlights the importance of understanding the influence of culture and tradition when developing strategies for promoting sexual and reproductive health during family planning, pregnancy and childbirth among families in Nepal.