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Family firms are the most prevalent form of business organization in the world. This special issue of the Journal of Managerial Issues seeks to advance knowledge about the strategic and behavioral issues and processes aimed to accomplish the transgenerational economic and non-economic goals of these firms. Taking a strategic management perspective, this article starts with a brief overview of family business studies, summarizes the articles in this issue, and discusses future research opportunities to create usable knowledge on this ubiquitous organizational form., Family enterprises are the predominant form of business organizations estimated to range from 60% to 98% of all firms in different regions of the world (e.g., Miller and Le-Breton Miller, [...]

Various capabilities exist within the firm, yet how capabilities are configured to deliver firm value remains to be fully understood. To this end, the relationship between firm-level absorptive capacity, one type of dynamic capability, and ordinary capabilities is examined. Absorptive capacity is hypothesized to create value by exploiting knowledge via ordinary capabilities. Using a sample of firms in the software industry, a positive relationship is found between absorptive capacity and ordinary capabilities. Further, absorptive capacity is found to be positively related to three types of ordinary capabilities: customer, alignment, and operational capabilities. The findings extend current understanding of how capabilities are configured and how knowledge is leveraged to create firm value., Research related to capabilities in general, and dynamic capabilities in particular, is one of the most active areas of scholarship in management and has much promise as an area of [...]

Research has emphasized the importance of top management team (TMT) characteristics and leadership styles in influencing firm performance; however, less is known about how emerging forms of leadership, specifically shared leadership, influence the firm. Using a capability perspective, the firm's absorptive capacity is hypothesized to mediate the relationship between TMT shared leadership and firm performance. Empirical results, based on a sample of firms in the software industry, confirm this relationship. Further, empirical findings suggest shared leadership positively influences each capability of absorptive capacity (acquisition, assimilation, and transformation) with the exception of the exploitation capability. The findings extend understanding of how shared leadership influences firm performance noting the value-creating role of the firm's absorptive capacity and demonstrate the potential for further investigating leadership forms from a capability perspective., The pivotal role of top management teams (TMTs) in crafting strategies, enabling innovation, and improving firm performance has been widely noted (Buyl et al., 2011; Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Mihalache [...]

Numerous studies have examined absorptive capacity, yet the literature has remained generally noncumulative partially due to a limited understanding of the dimensionality of the construct. The capability-based perspective suggests that absorptive capacity is leveraged through multiple underlying capabilities. The objective of this study is to examine and hypothesize relationships among the capabilities to strengthen the theoretical foundation of research on absorptive capacity. An investigation of firms in the software industry was conducted, and the findings suggest firms convert knowledge using four distinct capabilities. The four-capability model of absorptive capacity is shown to be an appropriate operationalization, and empirical results confirm a positive relationship with firm performance. The theoretically anchored and empirically tested model of absorptive capacity offers a unifying conceptualization intended to provide a foundation for future studies and advance the progression of absorptive capacity-related studies., Researchers note that firm competitiveness is enhanced by assembling and leveraging idiosyncratic configurations of resources and capabilities (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Sparrow, 2001; Van Gils and Zwart, 2004). Hence, the [...]