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More than half of all new ventures fail. Though there are many contributing reasons for venture failure, new start-ups' inability to access critical resources necessary for survival has been discussed [...]

Abstract * This paper focuses on the use of time-based strategies by firms to compete more effectively in global markets. Time-based competition focuses on reducing cycle time from every facet [...]

Positive relationships were established among the use of strategic information technology, corporate performance and product cycle time.

This study examines the effects of CEO gender on market orientation and performance (growth and profitability) among a sample of small and medium‐sized service businesses. Gender was found to have significant indirect effects (via market orientation) on both market performance (growth) and financial performance (profitability). That is, female‐led service SMEs perform significantly better due to their stronger market orientation relative those led by males. The findings further suggest that female‐led firms were slightly better than their male‐led counterparts in transmitting market performance into financial performance, although the differences were not statistically significant.

Drawing on the family‐embeddedness perspectiveon entrepreneurship and the resource‐based‐view of the firm, we investigate how the promotion of family‐based brand identity influences competitive orientation (customer versus product) and firm performance in family businesses. Applying structural equation modeling to survey data collected from leaders of 218 family businesses, we demonstrate that developing a family‐based brand identity positively contributes to firm performance (growth and profitability) indirectly, via a customer‐centric orientation. In contrast, attempts to leverage family‐based brand identity via a product‐centric orientation do not impact firm performance. Our results suggest that family‐based brand identity enhances the family business' ability to persuade customers to make purchasing decisions based on the perceived attributes of the seller. As a result, we contribute to the discussions centered on how to optimize the intricate synergy between family and business.

This paper describes a study that investigates the mediating effects of information technology (IT) on the relationships among product and process innovations and firm performance (measured in multiple profitability and growth rate metrics). Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 397 small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), we find evidence that (1) increases on the strategic emphasis placed on innovation, both product and process, positively impact the prominence managers place on IT; (2) the impact of innovation (both product and process) on performance (both profitability and growth) is primarily indirect, felt via the mechanism of the importance managers place on IT; and (3) an increased emphasis on IT abets managers' perception of their firms' performance, as compared with that observed among peer firms (other SMEs).

This study investigates the influence that family members exert on the extent and frequency of substantive conflict within family firms across generations as a result of their familial relationship (distance) with the owner/manager of the firm and the positions these family members occupy in the family work group and social (non‐work) group. Following Beckhard and Dyer (1983), the construct of substantive conflict was vested in four key issues pertinent to family firms: (1) ownership continuity or change; (2) executive leadership continuity or change; (3) power and asset distribution; and (4) management's vision for the role of the firm in society. The results establish a relationship between conflict in a family business and the composition of the family's work group, non‐work (social) group, and the extensiveness of the family's social interactions. The relationships between conflict and family influence were found to be moderated by the generations (first, second, third, or later) among involved family businesses.

This paper reports the results of a survey of over 600 family businesses, examining the influence of organizational governance processes consisting of external participation and operating policies on the importance ascribed to various organizational and family goals. Working from a base of resource dependency, the relationships between organizational and family goals are presented as partially mediated by firms' dependency on extraorganizational sources of capital. The results suggest that the inclusion of outsiders on firms' boards may increase the access to external capital, and that increasing dependency on external capital resources may exert significant influence on organizational goals and objectives. Finally, family control of internal governance mechanisms seems to impact on family goals.

For many years, large, multinational corporations were thought to dominate international business. It was recently recognized that a number of entrepreneurial and family firms are active in the international arena (Oviatt & McDougall, 1994). Using data from a U.S. survey of entrepreneur-led family businesses, this paper examines the extent to which certain entrepreneurial characteristics, Internet usage, and investments in information technology influence internationalization and organizational growth among such firms. The results of regression analyses identify variables leading to success in the emerging global economy and their differential impact on these performance outcomes.

This paper examines the extent to which conflict across generations of family firms is due to the effects of two independent variables—generation and generational shadow. The presence of a generational shadow was indicated by whether either or both of the parents continued to influence the company once the next generation assumed control. Hypotheses predicted nonlinear trends in conflict and interactions between generation and generational shadow. Using data from a national telephone survey of over 1,000 family business owners, the results of an ANOVA test confirmed that the presence of generational shadow, in particular, that of the founder, increases organizational conflict.

Research on succession planning in family businesses has largely neglected issues linked to owner gender. The present study examines the extent to which differences are evident between male- and female-led family businesses in succession planning processes. Using data from a national survey of family-business owners, we explore the predictors of the comprehensiveness of succession planning. The results confirm that there are similarities and differences between males and females in the determinants of succession planning.

A radioassay was developed for estimation of the copper complexing ability of biological fluids. Application of this test to human saliva, gastric juice, hepatic and gall bladder bile showed that each contained substances with the ability to bind copper and form soluble complexes under alkaline conditions. The affinity of gall bladder bile for the metal greatly exceeded that of the other secretions. Resolution of secretions labeled with 64Cu by gel filtration indicated that the copper binding components of saliva and gastric juice form low molecular weight complexes. In contrast, bile contained a macromolecular binding component that was more pronounced in gall bladder than in hepatic bile. The net absorption of dietary copper in man may represent an interplay between the opposing influences of endogenous low molecular weight ligands and the macromolecular copper binding moiety in bile.

FRUCTOSE is capable of forming a highly stable chelate complex with iron, in contrast to some other hexose sugars and disaccharides which have little or no such ability1. Recently, attention has been focused on the iron–fructose complex because of its ability to move across biological membranes2and to enhance gastrointestinal iron absorption in man3. The structure which has been proposed for this compound is one in which iron, incorporated into a five-membered ring, is bound through the hydroxyl and carbonyl oxygen atoms to carbon atoms one and two of the fructose molecule1,4.

DURING an investigation of the possible role of chelation in the gastrointestinal absorption of iron in man, we have considered the endogenous ligands which could be secreted into the gut. Gastric juice seemed likely to be an important source because the rapid formation of iron chelates would require a low pH and because dietary iron is split off from protein during acid–peptic digestion in the stomach.

GASTRIC juice of healthy people contains a high molecular weight iron binding protein “gastroferrin”1. A role for the gastric iron binding protein in the regulation of iron absorption has been proposed2,3, and alterations in its production have been described in clinical conditions of iron deficiency3and iron overload2. The gastric juice obtained for the studies previously reported was free of saliva. Normally, however, swallowed saliva contributes substantially to the total volume of secretions present in the stomach. It was therefore decided to investigate the possible iron binding properties of this secretion. The effect of acid-peptic digestion on the iron binding properties of saliva was also studied because of the possibility that hydrochloric acid and pepsin secreted by the gastric mucosa react with the saliva present in the stomach.

MARINE biologists have been slow to recognize that the smaller phytoplankton elements which will pass through the finest nets are of great importance in the productivity of the oceans. In order to get some quantitative data on this subject for eastern Australia (lat. 33–34° S.), we have recently conducted experiments in which 44 gallons of sea-water were pumped into a drum and filtered through a phytoplankton net having 170 meshes per inch. The filtrate was collected and the particulate matter was spun out of 2-litre aliquots using a continuous centrifuge running at 13,000 rev./min. and having a slightly coned cup of maximum internal diameter 4.5 cm. and height 3.8 cm.