CALL FOR PAPERS

Journal of Managerial Issues
Special Issue: “Strategic Issues in the Family Firm”

DUE DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JULY 31, 2015
Expected Publication: Late 2016 or early 2017

GUEST EDITORS

James J. Chrisman, Mississippi State University (jchrisman@business.msstate.edu)
Joshua J. Daspit, Mississippi State University (josh.daspit@msstate.edu)
Rebecca G. Long, Mississippi State University (rebecca.long@business.msstate.edu)
Allison W. Pearson, Mississippi State University (allison.pearson@msstate.edu)
Pramodita Sharma, The University of Vermont (psharma@bsad.uvm.edu)

Journal of Managerial Issues (JMI) is pleased to announce a special issue in collaboration with the Center of Family Enterprise Research at Mississippi State University and the 2015 Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC).

This special issue aims to disseminate recent theoretical and empirical work (quantitative or qualitative) dealing with strategic issues in family firms. In an early assessment of the family business literature, Sharma, Chrisman, and Chua (1997) found that much more work was needed to understand how various factors might impact firm performance and suggested that taking a strategic management perspective would be a valuable way to advance the field. A later assessment (Chrisman, Chua, & Sharma, 2005) noted the progress made, particularly the evidence that family involvement and influence can affect firm performance and the emergence of agency theory and the resource-based view as primary theoretical lenses for the study of family firms. Since then, new theoretical approaches have surfaced and studies on goals, governance systems, and strategic initiatives have substantially increased knowledge about the behavior and performance of family firms (De Massis, Sharma, Chua, Chrisman, 2012; Melin, Nordqvist, Sharma, 2014).

The purpose of this special issue is to publish theoretical and empirical work that further contributes to the study of strategic issues in family firms. A non-exhaustive list of possible topic areas includes:

• Goal formulation and modification in family firms over time;
• Functional, business, and/or corporate strategy formulation and/or implementation issues in family firms;
• Family firm diversification, innovation, and corporate entrepreneurship;
• Stakeholder management and social responsiveness in family firms;
• Strategic transgenerational ownership transfer in family firms;
• The influence of governance structures and conflict on strategic decision making;
• Influence of top management teams/dominant coalitions in family firm value creation;
• How family involvement directly or indirectly creates (dis)advantages for family firms;
• The role of strategic human resource practices within the family firm; and
• How psychological, social, and/or human capital in family firms affects value creation.

Submission guidelines: Manuscripts must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages in length with 1" margins and 12-point font. The page limit includes text pages, references, tables, and figures (cover page and abstract are not counted). Submissions to the special issue should be sent electronically in Microsoft Word format to Josh Daspit (josh.daspit@msstate.edu) and copied to the other guest editors.

All submissions are subject to the standard double-blind review process. Manuscripts must be original, unpublished works not concurrently under review for publication at another outlet and are expected to follow the standard formatting guidelines for JMI.

Collaboration with 2015 FERC: Authors are encouraged to submit their papers to FERC by the January 31, 2015, following the submission guidelines of the conference. Several editors of this issue will be available at the conference to provide feedback to interested authors.

PLEASE NOTE:
1. Acceptance at FERC does not guarantee acceptance for the special issue.
2. Submission to or attendance of FERC is not imperative for manuscript submission to this special issue.
3. The standard administrative fee of $100 for JMI is waived for papers accepted into the special issue. However, the standard fee of $30 per page over the 25-page manuscript limit will apply.

Questions regarding the special issue may be addressed to any guest editor.


References

Chrisman, J. J., Chua, J. H., & Sharma, P. (2005). Trends and directions in the development of a strategic management theory of the firm. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 29(5): 555-576.

De Massis, A., Sharma, P., Chua, J., & Chrisman, J. (2012). Family Business Studies: An Annotated Bibliography. Edward Elgar Publishing Inc., Northampton, MA.

Melin, L., Nordqvist, M. and Sharma, P. (2014). SAGE Handbook of Family Business. SAGE Publications Ltd., Thousand Oaks, CA.

Sharma, P., Chrisman, J. J., & Chua, J. H. (1997). Strategic management of the family business: Past research and future challenges. Family Business Review, 10(1): 1-35.