Knowledge and the Family Business

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction: Mapping the Paths Through the Handbook

   • Manlio Del Giudice, Maria Rosaria Della Peruta, Elias G. Carayannis

   Pages 1-7

3. Family Businesses in the New Knowledge Economy: Governance and Management

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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4. Family business in the new knowledge economy: Governance, management, stories

   1. Knowledge Management and Family Business

      • Manlio Del Giudice

      Pages 11-46

   2. Learning Processes and Social Implications in Family Organizations

      • Maria Rosaria Della Peruta

      Pages 47-72

   3. Family Business: Leadership and Succession

      • Maria Rosaria Della Peruta

      Pages 73-107

   4. Family Business in the World

      • Manlio Del Giudice

      Pages 109-123

   5. The Italian Entrepreneurial Outlook

      • Manlio Del Giudice

      Pages 125-186

5. Family Business Entrepreneurs as Creative Destroyers and “Knowledge Weavers”

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 187-187

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6. Family business entrepreneurs as creative destroyers And “knowledge weavers”

   1. Definition of Terms and Concepts

      • Elias G. Carayannis

      Pages 189-228

   2. Insights from Theory and Practice

      • Elias G. Carayannis

      Pages 229-249

   3. Critical Success and Failure Factors and Lessons Learned

      • Elias G. Carayannis

      Pages 251-260

7. Back Matter

   Pages 261-267

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Family businesses—the predominant form of business organization around the world—can make numerous, critical contributions to the economy and family well-being in both financial and qualitative terms. But dysfunctional family businesses can be difficult to manage, painful experiences at best, and they can destroy family wealth and personal relationships. This book explores the dynamics of family business management, in the context of constantly changing market conditions and the role that knowledge management plays in strategic planning and adaptation. Integrating the literature from family business, entrepreneurship, industrial psychology, and knowledge management, and with illustrative examples from a variety of enterprises, the authors address such topics as: •How family businesses can compete in the new knowledge economy •How to manage a family business when knowledge is its main asset •How to transfer knowledge (and how to keep it alive) through family generations Within this framework, the authors argue that effective resource management—especially intangible resources—is central to enabling a family-run organization to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over time. They note that families often develop systemic, intuitive, or tacit knowledge that transcends rational decision making and needs to be recognized and nurtured as a distinctive asset. The authors demonstrate that trans-generational value is achieved when the family firm innovates and adapts itself to changing external and internal conditions. This kind of entrepreneurial performance requires dynamic capabilities and processes designed to acquire, exchange, combine and even shed knowledge and practices; and, in turn, dynamic capabilities result from mechanisms of knowledge sharing, collective learning, experience accumulation, and transfer.

• Entrepreneurship
• Family business
• Knowledge management
• Organizational learning
• Resource management
• Strategic Management

• Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

  Manlio Del Giudice

• Naples, Italy

  Maria Rosaria Della Peruta

• School of Business, George Washington University, Washington, USA

  Elias G. Carayannis

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