Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NC1030 group made significant programs toward their stated objectives. Linda Niehm and Jane Swinney served as Guest Co-Editors for a special family business focused issue of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues (2010, Issue 31, Volume 4). The special issue contained seven papers focused on the operation of family businesses and their response to environmental conditions of adversity and change, as well as family relationships, and intermingling of family and business resources. Of the seven papers, four were authored by NC-1030 research team members (Niehm et al., Pushkarskaya & Marshall, Stafford et al., and Yilmazer & Schrank). The research of several members of the group focused on minority family business owners. Korean and Mexican American businesses were analyzed from the 2003/2005 National Minority Business Owner Survey. The survey instrument is based on the 1997 National Family Business Survey. Another study by Lee found that only 15 percent of Korean business owners speak English in the household and Korean owners have lived in the U.S., on average, 22 years. Typical Korean-owned business was established in 1994. Majority (91.5%) of the Korean-owned business was non-home based. There are many distinct differences between Korean- and White-owned family businesses. Korean business owners experienced lower levels of business success and goal achievement. Korean business owners were more likely to be involved in financing from banks and were more likely to be involved in religious or community social networks compared to the White business owners. The human capital and social capital of the Korean business owner are important determinant of business success and business goal achievement. Business size and business age significantly the business goal achievement among Korean-owned family businesses. Research published by Niehm, L. S., Tyner, K., Shelley, M., & Fitzgerald, M. (2010) provides theoretical understanding of how smaller family businesses adopt integrated IT and use it to manage business needs and demands over time. It also provides understanding of the potential benefits of IT usage for small family firms and the antecedent conditions which help or hinder its adoption. Development of IT skills and capabilities may help family firms to effectively manage the overlap or interface between business and family, communicate more effectively within and between business networks, better serve customers, and be more competitive in the marketplace. Even the smallest businesses can gain advantages through gathering and tracking customer and market information, wholesale purchasing, and on-line interaction with customers. In the long term such capabilities and skills may lead to the enhanced sustainability of family firms. Data analysis and manuscript development continue for our USDA grant, Rural Community Resiliency: The Role of the Retail Sector in Easing the Effects of Slow Motion Shocks. Rural business outreach projects were again conducted in spring 2011 with rural retail and hospitality firms through collaboration with the Greenfield, IA Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Program. A total of six businesses from this small community were provided with marketing and branding assistance, competitive strategic advice, and physical enhancements of the actual business. Student consulting teams from the Entrepreneurship in Human Sciences class were led by Linda Niehm for this outreach project. Data analysis is underway for the Rural Renaissance Community Index (RRCI) Project which is focused on identifying factors that attract and retaining residents in small rural Iowa communities. Research results and outreach pieces developed as a result of the projects research results were used in the natural disaster work done in MN because caused by torrential rains and flooding. Family Conflict and Family Integrity tools were published in a book for family business owners and practitioners who work with family businesses. A case study is overlaid with the Sustainable Family Business Theory within a new family business book. In this way, a greater understanding of this complex systems theory will ensue. The work of the NSF Project Teams (Danes, Stafford and Haynes; and Marshall and Schrank) was reviewed by the staff at the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Based on this review, Haynes attended a meeting to discuss NC1030 involvement in their disaster mitigation efforts through a program entitled PS-PREP. A policy paper was written to examine the impact of the potential lapse in the Bush tax cuts established under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) and Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) utilizing data from the Federal Reserve Boards Survey of Consumer Finance for 2007. This analysis supplemented similar work by the Tax Policy Center and others. A second policy paper was written examining retirement assets held by small business owners, who own and manage the business and have fewer than 500 employees, utilizing the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finance. The study carefully examines the behavior of small business owners who earn a high percentage of their income and hold a high percentage of their net worth in business income and assets, respectively. Bank lending reports were prepared for the ten SBA regions. These reports examined the decline in lending by depository lenders from 2007 through 2010. Results of a study comparing copreneurs to non-copreneurial family business owners on perceptions of community social responsibility (CSR) indicate that coprenerus and noncoprenerus did not differ on the three dimensions of community responsibility as anticipated. The dependent variables examined were two of the three dimensions of community social responsibility as previously operationalized by Niehm et al. (2008) -- commitment to the community, and community support. A third dimension, perception of community vitality, was based on a single question asking the business owner his or her impression of whether or not the locale used to be a better community. Literature suggests that copreneurs may be searching for the perfect blend of work and family, and a logical extension would be to expand the scope to the community. The study was exploratory in nature therefore it is premature to say that the results are definitive on the lack of differences. Additional research is necessary to determine the validity of the measures of CSR used in this study, and efforts should be made to develop more reliable measures as the alphas for these indices are not as high as desired. Research was conducted on the economic impact of the tobacco buyout program on Kentucky tobacco farmers and Kentucky rural communities. Tobacco farmers were expected to transition to other business activities. However, farmers decide individually how they spend their tobacco quota, and their expenditure decision is influenced by their age, education, on and off farm income, and overall lifestyle. Therefore, the composition of the farm population has a significant impact on the outcomes of the tobacco buy-out program on rural communities. Research has also focused on family structure and its effect on adaptation strategies of farm family businesses. The process of business recovery from disaster has yet to be studied comprehensively. Understanding this process is important not only to characterize and reduce attrition post-disaster but also to determine whether private and government disaster relief policy, business owner practices and family and community factors are leading to recovery. Research to date has narrowly focused on business characteristics and not on the interactions and interdependencies among businesses, the business owners family, and the community. A systems theory approach advocates considering simultaneous stressors on the business, family, and community to understand what leads to business demise or recovery. This NSF and AFRI funded research uses comprehensive data on business owners and their families to assess the extent to which family considerations and owner patterns of adjustment to change impact business recovery or non-recovery. This research examines disaster aid practices and policy and the role of community in business owner decisions post-disaster. The research uses a theoretical systems framework to examine the interaction and relative importance of factors such as business and owner characteristics, challenges faced by families and businesses, family resiliency and adjustment strategies, owner risk-taking, spatial characteristics of the disaster, and infrastructure changes created by a disaster on the post-event recovery or demise of small and medium sized businesses.

Niehm, L. S. & Swinney, J.L. Guest editors introduction to the special issue on family business. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 31(4), 397-398. Niehm, L. S., Tyner, K., Shelley, M., & Fitzgerald, M. (2010). Technology Adoption in Small Family-Owned Businesses: Accessibility, Perceived Advantage, and Information Technology Literacy. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 31(4), 498-515. Frazier, B. J. & Niehm, L.S., (2010). The Influence of the Institutional Environment on Community Perceptions of Rural Retailer Performance. Available at http://www.itaaonline.org [abstract].Research presentation for 2010 International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, October 27-30, 2010. Kim, H., Niehm, L. S., & Park, S., (2010). The Assessment of Information Quality in Small Business Websites. Available at http://www.itaaonline.org [abstract].Research presentation for 2010 International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, October 27-30, 2010. Danes, S.M. & Stafford, K. (2011). Family social capital as family business resilience capacity. In Richard Sorenson (Ed.), Family Business and Social Capital (ppgs. 79-105, Chapter 7). Edward Elgar: UK. Haynes, G., Danes, S.M., & Stafford, K. (2011). Influence of federal disaster assistance on family business survival and success. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 19 (2), 86-98. Lee, Y. L., Jasper, C. J. & Fitzgerald, M. A. (2010). Gender differences in perceived business success and profit growth among family business managers. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 31, 458-474. DOI: 10.1007/s10834-010-9226-z Niehm, L. S., Tyner, K. E., Shelley, M. C., & Fitzgerald, M. A. (2010). Antecedents and consequences of information technology adoption in small family-owned businesses. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 31(4), 498-515. DOI: 10.1007/s10834-010-9197-0. Muske, G. (2010) Entrepreneurship and Programmatic Needs: Perception of Extension Agents and Economic Developers. Bismarck, ND: Center for Community Vitality, NDSU Extension. Pushkarskaya, H. and M.I. Marshall. 2010. Family Structure, Policy Shocks, and Family Business Adjustment Choices. Journal of Family and Economic Issues 31(4):414-426. Peake, W.O. and M.I. Marshall. (2011). Does Experience Dictate Entrepreneurial Firm Performance? Southern Journal of Entrepreneurship 4(1):49-70. Flaig, A. and M.I. Marshall. The Marriage Tax: Do Marriage and Children Impact the Success of Self-Employed Men and Women Differently? Presented and published online in Proceedings of 2010 International Council for Small Business, Cincinnati, OH, June, 2010. M.I. Marshall and A. Flaig. Can Women Have It All? The Impact of Gender and Children on the Self-Employed. Presented and published online in Proceedings of 2011 USASBE Conference, Hilton Head, SC, January, 2011. Lee, Y. & Zachary, R. (2011). Determinants of business success among Korean-owned small business in the U.S.: The role of human capital, financial capital, and social capital. Proceedings of the 9th Asian Consumer and Family Economics Association Conference, Seoul, Korea, 9, 201-213.