Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

NC 1030:  Sustainable and Resilient Systems: Transformative Response to Disruptions by Families, Businesses, and Communities

Annual Meeting Minutes

Room 161 City Campus

Lincoln, Nebraska

October 5-6, 2023

Thursday, 10-5-23, 8:15am to 5pm

Introductions:

All persons in attendance introduced themselves.  Members in attendance included:

Yoon Lee – Utah State University

Maria Marshall - Purdue University

Das Debanjan –West Virginia University

Margaret Fitzgerald – North Dakota State University

Erin M. Irick- University of Wyoming

Jennifer Johnson Jorgensen – University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Cynthia Jasper – University of Wisconsin—(Interim Secretary)

Michael Wilcox – Purdue University – [Administrative Advisor]

Melody LeHew – Kansas State University

Stephen Mukembos – University of Missouri

Kelsie Doty –Kansas State University

Virginia Solis Zuiker – University of Minnesota (Co-Chair, with Dr. Sandra Sydnor)

Michael Cheang – University of Hawaii

Renee Wiatt – Purdue University (attended via zoom)

Welcome from Dr. Derek McLean, Dean of the UNL Agricultural Research Division

Dr. McLean welcomed the NC1030 group to Lincoln. He noted that the NC1030 project is timely now because we need to maintain resilient and sustainable communities and businesses.  This is critical during climate change and natural disasters – all of which are becoming more prevalent.  It is important to have input from social scientists like ourselves as we try to address many of the problems we are facing today. 

Welcome from Dr. Virginia Solis Zuiker

Dr. Solis Zuiker welcomed the members and outlined the plans for the meeting.

Dr. Mary Emery, Director of Rural Prosperity Nebraska – discussed her role as the first director of Rural Prosperity Nebraska, a University of Nebraska program launched in 2020 that focuses on real community development and vitality.

Dr. Michael Wilcox, Purdue University and Administrative Advisor -- gave an update on multi-state projects and expectations for the achievement of goals associated with the NC1030 project.

NC1030 Policy Handbook

Dr. Cynthia Jasper led a discussion regarding the update of the NC1030 Policy Handbook.   

Also discussed was the Declaration process as it is used by this group to show other committee members what individuals are working on. This helps to gain collaborators and also makes sure we are not working on similar topics separately. Because we all have diverse interests, the declaration process helps to create integrated papers. 

Cynthia Jasper has agreed to update the NC1030 Policy Handbook and Maria Marshall has agreed to include two new datasets into the handbook. 

Review of Project Objectives

Accomplishments from the past year where discussed relative to the five themes of the NC1030 project.

 Theme 1:  Rural Small Business Recovery and Resilience to Natural Hazards

 Theme 2:  Sustainable and Resilient SMEs in a Regenerative Fiber and Food System

 Theme 3: Entrepreneurial and Innovative Response to Disruption and System Shocks by Family-Owned SMEs

 Theme 4: Contributions of Socioemotional Wealth, Rurality, Collaboration and Race on Resilience and Success of Family-Owned SMEs

 Theme 5:  Impact of Transgenerational Control and Transfer within Family Businesses on Resilience and Recovery

Revisit Existing Data

NC1030 members discussed existing data sets and future plans for utilization of the information.

Continuing Project Group Work

Members of NC1030 discussed planning for future manuscripts, writing of manuscripts, and places for publication and presentations including the USASBE conference and NCRCRD.

Debrief

The meeting concluded for the day with a debrief session where main outcomes from the planning sessions were reported to the entire NC1030 group.

Friday – 10-6-23, 9am to 4:30pm

Announcements

Dr. Virginia Zuiker announced and outlined work plans for the day.

Invited Speaker, Kelly Ross, Founder of ECHO Collective and The Refinery, Ms. Ross founded a nonprofit in Lincoln, Nebraska, called ECHO Collective. ECHO stands for Empowering Communities through Her Opportunities. ECHO Collective’s major program, The Refinery, was created from experience with women who have the skill and passions to run a business, but were lacking in the formal business education to create success. The Refinery provides refugee and immigrant women with the opportunity to achieve economic independence and social capital through business education and professional mentorships. A community-driven curriculum is designed to create lasting relationships.

State Reports:

All members shared the highlights of their reports and achievements from the past year.  Several papers have been published or are in progress.   New members also shared their work from the past year that is related to the project. State Reports that have not been sent in should be completed as soon as possible.  

Business Meeting:

Topics of discussion included future leadership of the group and the location and dates for the next meeting.

Leadership:

Dr. Sandra Sydnor and Dr. Virginia Zuiker were elected to serve as Co-Chairs for the next two years.  Motion by Dr. Yoon Lee and second by Dr. Das Debanjan. All voted in favor of the motion to elect Dr. Sydnor and Dr. Zuiker to serve as co-chairs for two more years.

Dr. Srikant Manchiraju will continue to serve as secretary for the group. If he is unable to serve, Dr. Jennifer Johnson Jorgensen will step in as secretary for the 2023-2024 year. Dr. Kelsie Doty was elected to serve a two year term as secretary beginning in 2024 and ending in 2026. Motion by Dr. Das Debanjan and second by Dr. Yoon Lee. All members voted in favor of the motion.

Planning for NC1030 Annual Meeting for 2024

Dr. Das Debanjan from the West Virginia University is seeking information about the possibility of holding next year’s meeting – either in Pittsburgh or on the West Virginia University campus.  Dr. Debanjan will provide information within the next couple of weeks after consulting with administration at his university. Purdue University has been designated as the backup meeting site.

Possible dates for the meeting are either October 3 and 4, 2024 or October 17 and 18, 2024. To be determined after the site for the next meeting is determined.

Additional business meeting updates:

Dr. Maria Marshall announced that there has been another multi-state project that has been approved – NC 1100 that is focused around rural small business and health care access and recovery systems of care. Members from the NC1030 group were encouraged to join this multi-state group.   

Also announced is that NCRCRD also does a monthly webinar.  If anyone has a topic that would work for one of the thematic areas, reach out to Dr. Renee Wiatt.  If you are working on projects that might lend themselves to this type of presentation, please keep this in mind.

Purdue Institute for Family Business (PIFB) – It was also mentioned that a research newsletter is compiled by the NCRCRD group.  NC1030 members may want to submit short one-page summaries of research you have done or literature you are diving into that you would like to share with others.  Appropriate topics include:  Leadership and Succession, Creating Family Bonds, Financial or Estate Planning, and Strategic Business Planning.

New Collaborative Group Work

NC1030 members collaborated in small groups and planned for analyses and the writing of manuscripts and conference presentations.

Debrief:

Again on Friday the meeting concluded with a debrief session where main outcomes from the planning sessions were reported to the entire NC1030 group.

The next video conference for the NC1030 group will be scheduled for early in December 2023.

Respectfully submitted,

Cynthia Jasper, Interim Secretary

Accomplishments by NC 1030 Research Objectives (2022-2023):

The full NC1030 research team met every other month virtually to share and discuss on-going research activities. Smaller groups met throughout the year to discuss on-going research and to progress with the work begun on manuscripts. During 2022-2023, one manuscript was published, five manuscripts were in various stages: submitted, in review, or in revision, one peer-reviewed extension publication was published, one grant was awarded previously, one grant was submitted, and there were twelve conference presentations. Three manuscripts are in preparation and there was one engagement/outreach activity. The research works reported are collaborative across states. 

Specific accomplishments are represented by the three project objectives which are derivatives of the five themes.
NC 1030: Five Themes

1) Rural Small Business Recovery and Resilience to Natural Hazards; 2) Sustainable and Resilient SMEs in a Regenerative Fiber and Food System; 3) Entrepreneurial and Innovative Response to Disruption and System Shocks by Family-Owned SMEs; 4) Contributions of Socioemotional Wealth, Rurality, Collaboration and Race on Resilience and Success of Family-Owned SMEs and 5) Impact of Transgenerational Control and Transfer within Family Businesses on Resilience and Recover.

Three Objectives:

• Objective 1: Identify and measure the sources of major change and disruption and the structural barriers that impact the family/household, the business, or the community.

NC1030 members collaborated on a proposal to the USAD NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grant program. The proposal titled, Building Circular Economy Competencies in Fiber, Textiles and Clothing Curricula to Enhance Workforce Preparedness, was not funded. This project addresses the increasing environmental impact of the global fiber, textiles, and clothing (FTC) industry, where companies are shifting to circular economy (CE) practices. The CE model takes a regenerative approach that facilitates education for circularity and enhances employability of students entering the workforce. The overarching goal of this multi-institutional and transdisciplinary project is to enhance FTC curriculum with CE competencies to prepare next generation professionals to support the industry transformation toward circularity. The first objective is to increase conceptual knowledge related to FTC CE principles in baccalaureate education and address the skills gap related to regenerative agriculture, emerging technologies, and innovations advancing circularity. The second objective is to support FTC educators’ ability to deliver professional competencies related to CE. The following NC1030 members collaborated on this project: Diddi, LeHew and Doty.

LeHew & Doty worked on the following project: identifying opportunities and challenges experienced by regional fiber-based businesses MSMEs. Data was collected via personal interviews.

Wiatt, Marshall, and Haynes utilized data from the 2020 Small Business Disaster Survey and is titled “In the Depths of Despair: Lost Income and Recovery for Small Businesses During COVID-19.”  This study examined how small business owners sought to keep their businesses operating during the harshest times of the COVID-19 pandemic. I worked on this manuscript with other members of the NC-1030 working group (Renee Wiatt, Maria Marshall, and George Haynes). In this study, we tried to find the association between business funding strategies and actions taken by the business and both percent of lost income and length of recovery for U.S. small businesses. The completed manuscript was submitted to the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction on January 27, 2023; however, this manuscript was recommended to revise and resubmit for possible consideration of publication in this journal. Based on one reviewer’s comment, we worked to solve an endogeneity concern. To solve this problem, we applied a three-stage least squares regression model for this study and have plans on resubmitting by year’s end.

Niehm, Das, Manchiraju, Wiatt, LeHew, & Diddi collaborated on emerging research that addresses several overarching questions concerning small business owners and investigates the relationship between WLB/WFB for small business owners and their perceived business success. Research questions include: 1. Does one’s sense of work-life or work-family balance (WLB/WFB) impact feelings of perceived economic success for small business owners? 2. Can the strategic use of family adjustment strategies moderate spillover effects into family and work domains, thereby impact perceived economic success? A sizable portion of the literature addresses WLB/WFB for large companies (e.g., Wong, Chan & Teh, 2020; Felstead, Jewson, Phizacklea, & Waters, 2002). However, research addressing the said issue in small business settings still needs to be done. Thus, creating a knowledge gap regarding WLB/WFB for small, independently owned businesses has dramatically increased since the COVID 19 disruptions of 2020 and 2021 (Grossfeld, 2021).

Sydnor, Jorgensen, Jasper, Zuiker, and Visser's research states that this study was motivated by the observation that despite systemic inequities, economic biases in lending, racism and discrimination, business owners of color report higher optimism than their counterparts. The question that guided the study was: does experiencing a sudden shock, such as the 2020 pandemic impact optimism and perceptions of wealth and wellbeing? This is the first study of the perception of wealth and well-being of small hospitality businesses, including family-owning businesses, and especially minority business owners during sudden shocks.  Based on the research completed with NC-1030 members, results of the study on wealth and well-being of small business owners indicate that small business owners have higher levels of subjective well-being than larger companies and those making more than $100k per year have lower levels of subjective well-being.  In a similar vein, the results from the study on coping techniques and the wealth of hospitality businesses are fourfold: 1) women owners of hospitality businesses that used coping techniques perceived themselves as more successful, 2) owners of hospitality businesses that used coping techniques have a more positive perception of wealth, 3) race was not a factor in wealth and wellbeing perceptions, and 4) family-owned businesses and women have higher levels of wellbeing than men and nonfamily-owned businesses.  Results from these two studies help guide small business owners and retail managers to focus on increasing well-being, as it will have a positive impact on not only health but on wealth as well. 

• Objective 2: Identify and measure transformative responses to the positive and negative impacts of change and disruption on the family/household, the business, or the community.

Lee, Kelley, Wiatt, and Marshall, using data from the 2019 Small Business Values Survey (SBVS), investigated differences between copreneur and noncopreneur small business owners in the United States. Specifically, we looked at differences in work-family balance characteristics, business characteristics, and owner characteristics between copreneurial and noncopreneurial small businesses. We found that copreneurs were significantly more likely than noncopreneurs to report conflicts about decisions related to their work and family lives and were also more likely to report negative work-to-family spillover and negative family-to-work spillover. However, using a logistic regression, we found that copreneurs were more likely than noncopreneurs to report perceiving the business as successful and profitable. Looking at a subsample of only copreneurs, we found that various work-family balance characteristics, business characteristics, and owner characteristics were significantly associated with the likelihood of perceiving the business as successful or profitable.

Wiatt, Marshall, and Musselman investigated the succession process in small and medium family farms as two distinct but related processes of management transfer and ownership transfer. Past studies focused on the broad subject of succession, without dissecting succession into the components that it contains. Further, this study aimed to evaluate which business, family, and owner characteristics were significant in progressing each process towards the actual transfer of management and ownership. A bivariate ordered probit regression was utilized to model the processes of management and ownership transfer as separate but related processes. Both management transfer and ownership transfer were modeled utilizing three distinct stages of transfer. Business and owner characteristics were significant to both management and ownership transfer, whereas family characteristics only influenced ownership transfer. Farm family businesses that discussed goals, identified a successor, and were educated on how to start the transfer process were more likely to have made progress in both management and ownership transfer.

 Marshall, Katare, and Valdivia explore the lessons learned from small business recovery from Hurricane Katrina that occurred over a decade ago and the recent COVID-19 Pandemic. The results show that financial comingling can have short-term benefits but long-term detrimental effects. The results also indicate that not only does business size matter, but also that direct-to-consumer businesses are more vulnerable to decreased demand by consumers. Finally, for both types of disaster, U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans seem to have the highest effect on small business recovery.

 Cheang, Palomares, Valdivia, Katare, & Zuiker collaborated on research paper that centered families’ and small businesses’ coping efforts during a public health crisis. 

• Objective 3: Determine and inform policy or practice related to the wellbeing of the family, the business, or the community.

LeHew & Doty collaborated on the development and delivery of a Farm to Fashion camp to middle and high schoolers. This project can be considered a form of engaged scholarship and outreach. The camp introduced young people to stages of fiber production, from sheep to product development, emphasizing importance of transitioning to sustainable practices. The overarching goal of this activity is to inform and inspire young people to pursue a career in the regenerative and regional fiber system.

Marshall, Katare, and Valdivia provided early evidence on how small business owners were affected by COVID-19 and the implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. We collected online survey data from a national sample of 463 small business owners across the United States. There are three main themes that emerge from the results. First, drivers of income loss were not necessarily associated with time to recovery. Second, businesses that were undercapitalized were more likely to suffer higher income loss, longer time to recovery, and less likely to be resilient. Resilient was operationalized as a scale merging perceived success, potential for growth, and perceived profitability. Third, business model changes were necessary due to the pandemic but not all adaptive strategies led to better business outcomes. The results from this research study will lead to a better understanding of key vulnerabilities and adjustments that small businesses make to fully recover from economic shocks. 

NC-1030 members from Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Colorado, Utah, West Virginia, and Florida collaborated on a grant application to the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD). The proposal was submitted in November 2022 and was ultimately not funded.  The proposal, however, is being reimagined in 2023 and is planned to be submitted to an external agency within the next year.  Once funded, the impacts will include forming a transformative system focused on sustainability and resilience for rural fiber-based small businesses.  The economic prospects are exciting, and the more efficient use of raw materials (e.g., agri-based fiber, wool, etc.) will significantly impact the agriculture, retail, and related industries. 

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Publications

Lee, Y., H. Kelley, R. Wiatt, and M.I. Marshall. 2023. Work-Family Balance and Perceived Business Outcomes Among Copreneurial and Noncopreneurial Small Business Owners. Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Manuscripts Submitted/ In Review/Under Revision

Edobor, Edeoba W, Maria I. Marshall, Bhagyashree Katare, and Corinne Valdivia. Insuring for Cyclone Events: What Matters Most to Small Business Owners? International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

Marshall, M.I., Y.G. Lee, and R.D. Wiatt. Does socioemotional wealth impact owner exit intention? The case of small businesses in the U.S. under revision.

Valdivia, C., Morales, A., Perez, O. F. R., Flores, L. Y., & Zuiker, V. S. (Revise and Resubmit). Latinos and Latinas subjective wellbeing in Midwestern non-metro towns.

Wiatt, R., M.I. Marshall, and Y.G. Lee. Love of Work or Love and Work: Does Small Business Owners Compulsion to Work Payoff? Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Wiatt, R., M.I. Marshall, Y.G. Lee, and G. Haynes. In the Depths of Despair: Lost Income and Recovery for Small Businesses During COVID-19. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

Sorensen, K.  & Johnson Jorgensen, J. (In Press).  Millennial Perceptions of Private Label and National Brand Clothing: An Exploration of Clothing Preferences Using Q Methodology.

Johnson Jorgensen, J., Sorensen, K. & Spilinek, M.  (Under Revision).  Motivations to Collect: How Consumers are Socialized to Build Product Collections. 

Spilinek, M. & Johnson Jorgensen, J. (In Review).  Creepy or Convenient?: Consumer Perceptions of Privacy and Ad Exposure on Social Media.

Johnson Jorgensen, J., & Sorensen, K. (In Review).  Millennial Perceptions of Augmented Reality in Retail: A Q Methodology Study. 

Johnson Jorgensen, J. (In Review).  The Socialization of Baby Boomer Consumers through Visual Social Media. 

Peer Reviewed Extension Publications

Fitzgerald, M. and Muske, G. (2023, August). “Couples in Business Together”. Purdue Institute for Family Business Newsletter. Newsletter 2: https://ag.purdue.edu/department/agecon/fambiz/newsletters.html.

Grants:

USDA-NIFA-AFRI: Rural Small Business Recovery and Resilience to Natural Hazards: A Focus on Women and Minority Owned Small Businesses, 6/2019-5/2022, $499,999.84, PI and Project Director M.I. Marshall, Co-PIs: B. Katare (Purdue) and C. Valdivia (University of Missouri).

Jung, N. Y., & Johnson Jorgensen, J. (2023).  The Effects of Human Inclusive SSRT (Self Service

Retail Technology) on Consumers’ Patronage.  Layman Award. Funded: $9,907.50.

Johnson Jorgensen, J. (2022).  Constructing the Fabric of a Sustainability-Focused Future

Fashion Workforce.  Grants-In-Aid.  Funded: $7,465.72.

Submitted/Not funded

LeHew, M., Doty, K., Niehm, L., Johnson Jorgensen, J., Zuiker, V., Jasper, C., Sydnor, S., Diddi, S., Lee, Y., Das, D., & Manchiraju, S. (2022).  Resilient Communities and Economies Supported by Sustainable and Regenerative Fiber Systems.  North Central Regional Center for Rural Development Thematic Workgroups Grant.  Unfunded: $48,050.00.

Conference Presentations

Diddi, S., LeHew, M. L. A., Hiller Connell, K. Y., & Li, Y. (2022, October). Educator preparedness to incorporate Circular Economy principles in undergraduate fiber, textiles, and clothing curricula. Poster presented at the International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference, October 27-30.

Diddi, S., Hiller Connell, K. Y., LeHew, M. L. A., & Li, Y. (2022, October). Knowledge and skills required to advance Circular Economy in the fashion industry: Perspectives from industry professionals. Poster presented at the International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference, October 27-30.

Doty, K., LeHew, M. L. A., Hiller, K. Y., & Crane, A. (2022, October). Farm  to Fashion Camp: Educating students on animal fiber production for the fashion supply chain. Poster presented at the International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference, October 27-30.

Doty, K., LeHew, M. L. A., Hiller Connell, K., & Crane , A. (2023, April 14). Engaged Scholarship through the Flint Hills Farm to Fashion Camp. Presented at the Fashion and Circular Economy Symposium, Ft. Collins, CO.

LeHew, M. L. A., & Diddi, S. (2023, April 14). Exploring consumers as supply chain partners within a circular system and the need for a paradigm shift in consumer behavior education. Visioning Session at the Fashion and Circular Economy Symposium, Ft. Collins, CO.

Marshall, M., Lee, Y., Haynes, G., Valdiva, C., Doty, K., Cheang, M., and Wiatt, R. (2023). Use of family business adjustment strategies during COVID: A comparison between homebased and non-homebased businesses, United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Annual Meeting, January, 2023.

Marshall, M., Lee, Y., Haynes, G., and Wiatt, R. (2023). Small Businesses during COVID-19: Funding strategies to expedite recovery and minimize Income Loss, United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, January, 2023.

Martinez-Palomares, Jorge, Corinne Valdivia, and Maria Marshall. 2023. Who got it worse? The implications of decreasing income on mental health by gender and race during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cambio de Colores Conference, June 18, Columbia, MO.

Niehm, L. S., Das, D., Manchiraju, S., Wiatt, R., LeHew, M. L. A., & Diddi, S. (2023, January). Work-life balance and perceived economic success of small US businesses: Exploring the moderating effect of family adjustment strategies. Research paper presented at USASBE Annual Conference, January 18-22.

Sydnor, S., Jorgensen, J. J., Jasper, C., Zuiker, V. S., & Visser, M. A. (2023). Wealth & well-being: Perceptions from diverse family-owned businesses. Presentation presented at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) annual conference, Orlando, Florida.

Sydnor, S., Jorgensen, J. J., Jasper, C., Zuiker, V. S., & Visser, M. A. (2023). The role gender and family play in businesses’ perceptions of wealth & wellbeing under sudden shocks. Poster presented at the 2023 Annual International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (ICHRIE) Summer Global Conference, Phoenix, AZ.

Wiatt et al. Depths of Despair USASBE, January 2023

Manuscripts- Work in Progress

Cheang, M., Palomares, J. C. M., Valdivia, C., Katare, B., & Zuiker, V. S. (Submitted, Rejected, Manuscript in Preparation). Families' and small businesses' efforts to cope with income reduction or loss in times of a public health crisis.

Sydnor, S., Jorgensen, J. J., Jasper, C., Zuiker, V. S., & Visser, M. A.   Perceptions of Wealth and Well-being Of (Diverse) Family-Owned Businesses. (Manuscript in Preparation).

Wiatt, R. D., Marshall, M. I., Zuiker, V. S., Haynes, G., Jasper, C. R., Sydnor, S., & Valdivia, C. (Manuscript in Preparation). The Impact of Family Business Culture and Wellbeing (or Balance or Self-Care) on Functioning and Profitability.

Extension Presentations

Haynes, G. (2022). Fibershed presentation on small business, Montana Fibershed, Bozeman, Montana.  October, 2022

Haynes, G. (2022).  Economic Impact of Covid-19 and Stimulus Programs, Agricultural Economics Conference, Montana State University, October, 2022.

Haynes, G. (2022).  Local rural development - financial planning and management and agricultural subsidies. Hamilton, Montana, October, 2022

Haynes, G. (2023).  More Agricultural Price and Production Uncertainty and Volatility in 2022. Bureau of Business and Economic Research. January through March, 2023.

Haynes, G. (2023). Agricultural policy:  Stimulus, IRA, and farm Bill, Stone Child workshop, webinar, April, 2023.

Haynes, G. (2023). Finance, Tax and Asset Protection (FTAP), Stone Child workshop, webinar, April, 2023.

Haynes, G. (2023). Agricultural Economics of Montana Hutterites.  MSU, June, 2023

Haynes, G. (2023).  Financial Stimulus Update:  Past, Present, and Future, Montana Farmer’s Union, webinar, June, 2023

Engagement/Outreach

Hiller Connell, K. Y., LeHew, M. L. A., Doty, K., & Crane, A. (2022, June). Flint Hills Farm to Fashion Camp. Youth summer camp at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.