Innovation is a key determinant of long-term success for family firms. We apply a multiple case study research design to investigate the relationship between stories that are shared among family members across generations and the family firms’ innovations. We derive a set of four propositions suggesting that founder focus in stories is negatively and family focus is positively associated with innovation. We further propose that these relationships are mediated by the scope of decision-making options, the distribution of decision-making power between generations, and the role of conflict in the families.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine public-private partnerships with a particular\ud focus on the impact that such partnerships have on territorial governance. These organizations are\ud spread all over the world with the goal of promoting community participation and sustainable\ud development, and engaging citizens and organizations in the decision making of local governance.\ud This situation underlines important changes in governance and territorial governance models.\ud Design/methodology/approach – A mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches are used.\ud Analysing the existing literature, the paper focuses on specific type of public-private partnership: the\ud Local Action Group (LAG). Specifically, this study focuses on 63 Italian LAGs, in order to highlight\ud their role in the challenges that local governance has to face.\ud Findings – Findings suggest that public-private partnerships can represent a new model of\ud governance – the Partnership Governance – with features that differentiate this form from other\ud models.\ud Originality/value – Through a relatively novel statistical technique, combined with interviews,\ud document analysis and direct observations, on the one hand the public-private partnership\ud phenomenon is observed, and on the other hand, a new mode of governance that is affecting the\ud worldwide scenario in a current era and that is introducing ethical principles in governance systems is\ud conceived.\ud Keywords Governance, Partnership, Innovation, Modelling\ud Paper type Research pape

When management and customers see eye-to-eye: the agreement factor and performance Cinzia Dessì Michela Floris Article information:To cite this document: Cinzia Dessì Michela Floris, (2010),"When management and customers see eye-to-eye: the agreement factor and performance", Abstract Purpose -The paper aims to focus on management-customer relations as a way to understand the competitive advantages of small/medium-sized family businesses. The aim of this work is to verify whether management perceptions of business strengths and customer perceptions of the same strengths agree, and whether this agreement (perceptive concordance) can become an important factor in maintaining the firm's competitive advantages. Design/methodology/approach -The research is carried out through a single case study with a sample of 120 customers. Findings -The findings indicate that when management and customers agree on certain business issues, performance benefits. Comparing management's perception of strengths and customers' perceptions of the same strengths allow one to relate what the firm thinks of itself to what the customer sees in it. Practical implications -The research offers useful information about the efficiency of the firm's external communications and demonstrates that a shared language between the firm and its customers does exist and is understood by both entities. Moreover, practical implications are related to customers' degree of satisfaction with respect to management beliefs, and to management's opportunity to correct the weaknesses revealed by the agreement factor. Originality/value -The paper provides a different perspective on how to analyse competitive advantage inside small to medium-sized family businesses with cases and specific analyses not considered in depth by the family business literature.

This chapter is based on a systematic literature review of 56 articles published in leading academic journals and aims to reflect on the role of women in family businesses, focusing on specifics, contradictions, and opportunities derived from this specific setting. In detail, this work intends to disentangle this ambiguous and fragmentary topic and shed light on new perspectives by identifying how and why women are involved in invisible or minor roles where they are sometimes unpaid or paid less than men, despite having shown uncontested ability in firm management. Further studies are suggested to analyze in depth specific insights of the topic, particularly those related to anthropological and psychological perspectives.

PurposeThis study aims to explore how customer-perceived quality is affected by innovation in traditional products in the bread, bakery and pastry industry. The study assesses whether innovating traditional products is an effective strategy, especially in traditional industries.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed a quantitative method of analysis. Data were gathered from a sample of 200 Italian bread consumers and analysed using a two-pronged correlation analysis, and two hypotheses were tested using Pearson’s correlation.FindingsThe results showed the negative relationship between customer-perceived quality and innovating traditional products in traditional industries embedded in closed contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has several academic implications. First, by focusing on the traditional food industry, the study contributes to the theory by answering the call for research in this field; second, the findings contribute to the embeddedness construct and, third, to the studies of customer-perceived quality and to the literature on innovation.Practical implicationsThe findings are particularly interesting for entrepreneurs and consultants in traditional industries who make decisions on whether it is better to innovate or to remain anchored to tradition.Originality/valueThe present study clarifies the shadowy side of innovation in traditional industries, such as the bread, bakery and pastry industry, and it reveals how tradition plays a meaningful role in those sectors.