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This article summarizes the initial findings of a research project that explored violations of ethics in Spanish family businesses. The main results indicated that the most frequently perceived ethics violations were delaying succession processes, avoiding complex strategic planning, and building an organization based on the buying of loyalties. The age of the respondent affected the way in which these behaviors were perceived. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the results of research carried out in the area of the internationalization of family businesses. The study analyzes the influence of several factors relevant to any internationalization processes, and differentiates between those factors that aid internationalization and those that hinder such a process. The study also combines these factors with special characteristics inherent in family business, and discusses how such characteristics affect internationalization processes in family business. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Family businesses experience greater difficulties in their growth efforts and organizational development than nonfamily businesses. This article presents the findings of a research study conducted to clarify the presence and evolution of family businesses using as the subject of analysis the firms that formed the group of the one thousand largest firms in 1972, 1982, and 1992. The results show that a large number of family businesses disappear; several of them close down because they cannot adapt to major structural changes, others are sold to multinational companies, many become nonfamily businesses because more nonfamily shareholders are incorporated, and others are sold to nonfamily businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the findings of a research study conducted in the Spanish food and beverage industry. The objective of the research was to expand upon and clarify the knowledge available on the role family businesses play in the economy and to understand the possible behavioral differences when we compare them to non-family businesses. The results show that the family business has more difficulty in reaching the same size as a non-family business within a similar time span. Reduced risk levels, high equity control, and a tendency to be closed to outsiders are possible causes of the difficulties family businesses experience in maintaining faster growth rates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Family businesses are faced with many factors that either facilitate or restrain internationalization. The company's strategy, organizational structure, culture, and developmental stage are intertwined with the family's international characteristics, and each area involves different facilitating or restraining factors. This article, based on experience, previous studies, and a series of interviews, examines internationalization in family businesses. The authors suggest that if the company is unable to take advantage of the factors that facilitate internationalization or overcome the factors that restrain it, the process will probably fail. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]