Deals with the issue of entrepreneurship and family business. This title considers the issues, problems, contexts, or processes that make a family firm more entrepreneurial. It covers topics such as the emergence and growth of family businesses, and the use of entrepreneurial policies, practices and strategies by family firms.

'This is a very business-like book in its approach. It has an impressive global reach in its authorship, focal areas and use of evidence; it hits all the major practical challenges of family firms in a spirit that is fresh and current; and it deals with the cutting-edge themes and issues that are uppermost in the minds of owners, executives, advisors and researchers in the field.' – Nigel Nicholson, London Business School, author, Managing the Human Animal, Family Wars and The 'I' of Leadership Acclaim for the first edition: 'The authors have taken a lot of pain in putting this handbook together. As the name indicates, this is an excellent handbook for researchers.' – Global Business Review 'The Handbook of Research on Family Business has collected and synthesized a broad variety of topics by notable researchers who share a common dedication to family business research. This Handbook provides a comprehensive treatment that advances the frontiers of knowledge in family business, provoking valuable thoughts and discussion. The Handbook will serve as both an authoritative and comprehensive reference work for researchers investigating family enterprises.' – A. Bakr Ibrahim, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada 'Although family business research is a young discipline it is both necessary and important. For the wellbeing and future development of our society the survival of prosperous and passionate family business entrepreneurs is indispensable. In order to help the families in business to better understand how to succeed with their enterprises we need qualified and updated research. This book is the answer!' – Hans-Jacob Bonnier, Bonnier Business Press Group, Sweden and 6th Generation Chairman of the Family Business Network – International 'This Handbook is a unique compilation of the most important and the best recent family business research. The field has grown so rapidly that this effort will be a mark for the research to follow. The Handbook of Research on Family Business will be the reference for scholars in family business for many years to come. It will also stimulate new ideas in research.' – John L. Ward, IMD, Switzerland and Northwestern University, US During the previous decade, the multi-disciplinary field of family business has advanced significantly in terms of advances in theory, development of sophisticated empirical instruments, systematic measurement of family business activity, use of alternative research methodologies and deployment of robust tools of analysis. This second edition of the Handbook of Research on Family Business presents important research and conceptual developments across a broad range of topics. The contributors – notable researchers in the field – explore the frontiers of knowledge in family business entrepreneurship and stimulate critical thinking, enriching the repository of theoretical frameworks and methodologies. The Handbook takes a systematic and rigorous approach by providing in-depth insights into the dynamics of family business, its context and the significant role of stakeholders. Ultimately, this scholarly compendium of extant family business papers is an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, family business consultants, family business owner-managers and students.

This book is the first of its kind to highlight the importance of family businesses to economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the managerial, behavioral, and strategic issues facing these companies and offers conclusive statements about their performance and influence on the region. Family businesses have been found to outperform non-family businesses in advanced industrialized economies, yet no such information exists on the importance of these companies which dominate the economic landscape of sub-Saharan Africa. Through empirical evidence and cross-country data, a team of expert contributors explore matters related to the management of family-owned businesses, such as how they evaluate employee productivity and performance, manage human resources, view governance practices and the role of women, and other sensitive issues. This is a seminal text for students and researchers in family business, entrepreneurship, strategic management, and family business owners looking to improve and advance their companies for the greater good of sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the continent.

Parents around the globe are facing the common challenges of balancing family and work. And the need has never been more urgent for organizations to recognize how having a family impacts an employees creativity, productivity and performance. Here is a useful guide to help leaders implement country-sensitive work-family policies and create family-responsible environments in which employees can carry out their work and still be fully engaged with their families. In nine chapters, Balancing Work and Family: Reviews and addresses the unique cultural, social, political and economic climates in the United States, Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa; Provides practical recommendations based on solid international research; Presents theory as well as vivid accounts of employee experiences from different geographical regions and cultural backgrounds; Shares examples and business cases illustrating best practices from companies in these regions. The books perspective is truly global, with chapters written by international authors. It brings together a diverse team including an academic expert who has conducted rigorous studies on work family conflict, a lawyer who addresses the legal environment in some countries and a practitioner with hands-on experience with real employers and employees. Each chapter presents an overview of the factors in a specific region impacting work-family integration, the main challenges to individuals and organizations, solutions companies have implemented and many examples of the processes companies use to foster family-responsible cultures. The authors make a strong case that it is the job organizational leaders not HR professionals to direct change in this important area.

As the academic and scholarly landscape are continuously enhanced by the advent of new technology, librarians must be aware and informed to develop and implement best practices. Effective administration of libraries is a crucial part of delivering library services to patrons and ensuring that information resources are disseminated efficiently. Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Library Science, Information Management, and Scholarly Inquiry provides emerging information on modern knowledge management and effective means of sharing research through libraries. While highlighting the importance of digital literacy and information resources, readers will also learn new methods in information retrieval and research methods in quality scholarly inquiry. This book is an important resource for librarians, administrators, information science professionals, information technology specialists, students, and researchers seeking current information on the importance of effective library science technology.

This book offers valuable new insights into the design of culturally-aware systems. In its first part, it is devoted to presenting selected Culturally-Aware Intelligent Systems devised in the field of Artificial Intelligence and its second part consists of two sub-parts that offer a source of inspiration for building modelizations of Culture and of its influence on the human mind and behavior, to be used in new Culturally-Aware Intelligent Systems. Those sub-parts present the results of experiments conducted in two fields that study Culture and its influence on the human mind’s functions: Cultural Neuroscience and Cross-Cultural Psychology. In this era of globalization, people from different countries and cultures have the opportunity to interact directly or indirectly in a wide variety of contexts. Despite differences in their ways of thinking and reasoning, their behaviors, their values, lifestyles, customs and habits, languages, religions – in a word, their cultures – they must be able to collaborate on projects, to understand each other’s views, to communicate in such a way that they don’t offend each other, to anticipate the effects of their actions on others, and so on. As such, it is of primary importance to understand how culture affects people’s mental activities, such as perception, interpretation, reasoning, emotion and behavior, in order to anticipate possible misunderstandings due to differences in handling the same situation, and to try and resolve them. Artificial Intelligence, and more specifically, the field of Intelligent Systems design, aims at building systems that mimic the behavior of human beings in order to complete tasks more efficiently than humans could by themselves. Consequently, in the last decade, experts and scholars in the field of Intelligent Systems have been increasingly tackling the notion of cultural awareness. A Culturally-Aware Intelligent System can be defined as a system where Culture-related or, more generally, socio-cultural information is modeled and used to design the human-machine interface, or to provide support with the task carried out by the system, be it reasoning, simulation or any other task involving cultural knowledge.

Sustainable Management Development in Africa examines how African management and business scholarship can serve African and multinational management and organizations operating in Africa. In a broader sense, this book, within an African context, explores how human capital and intellectual capabilities can be organized at the higher education level; describes the cultural, social, and political influencers impacting management and organization; helps conceptualize African management theories to address organizational effectiveness; addresses the current management and organizational practices in Africa in identifying challenges; and provides guidance for more effective management and organizational operation. Aimed at researchers, academics, and advanced students alike, this book lays the groundwork for the application of uniquely African theoretical and practical perspectives for sustainable management and organizational operation, as explained from a contemporary African point of view. In addition and most important, this book contains a uniquely African content that allows for developing new theories and examining new ways of doing business, thus reaffirming the rise of African scholarship in the fields of management, organization, and business.

Global interest in African studies has been rapidly growing as researchers realize the importance of understanding the impact African communities can have on the economy, development, education, and more. As the use, acceptance, and popularity of African knowledge increases, it is crucial to explore how this community-based knowledge provides deeper insights, understanding, and influence on such things as decision making and problem solving. African Studies: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice examines the politics, culture, language, history, socio-economic development, methodologies, and contemporary experiences of African peoples from around the world. Highlighting a range of topics such as indigenous knowledge, developing countries, and public administration, this publication is an ideal reference source for sociologists, policymakers, anthropologists, government officials, economists, instructors, researchers, academicians, and graduate-level students in a variety of fields.