This article explores the nature and process of non-executive director (NED or non-executive) influence in quoted, familycontrolled firms (FCFs) through two company case studies in Singapore. Existing views of the non-executive role in such firms have been derived from theory, with traditional and ‘new’ agency approaches and resource dependence theory each offering differing prescriptions of the role. The article reviews this literature and suggests the potential value of qualitative research for understanding and reconciling competing prescriptions of the NED role. It then presents two case studies which explore the processes whereby independent non-executives seek to influence decision-making during critical incidents in the life of two FCFs. Based on these cases the article critiques the zero-sum view of power and the ‘nuclear’ conception of the family that informs much of the suspicious and hostile perspective of family control held by some agency scholars. In contrast, the article argues for a relational conception of power through which NEDs, despite the reality of family power and control, achieve effective influence through playing a vital mediating role in a web of firm and family relationships. This involves NEDs in defending the collective interest in the continuity of an ‘extended’ family of the firm against the damaging intrusion of ‘family altruism’ and managerial opportunism. Such a role can augment the authority of nonexecutives and the board whilst allowing necessary changes to be implemented.

This article examines the centrality of storytelling in achieving managerially relevant outcomes, with a focus on the in-situ performance context of corporate storytellers influencing one another. The Ricoeurian concept of speech act, capturing both the intentionality of organisational discourse and the social context of its production and reception, implicitly guided our research effort. The article has at its core a story of how senior organizational officers exploited the volatile circumstances of a major public offer in Singapore. By looking at the social construction of narratives in their many fragments we come to see how a key protagonist carves out a position of power. The efficacy of his performances can be seen to be dependent upon the effective use of poetic tropes and the receptiveness of listeners to particular Chinese archetypal relationship-driven themes. In crafting our story we use multiple texts which were produced in and around two case organizations. As such we offer a carefully constructed collage, a mixture of production and reproduction, sticking closely to forms of communication that key organizational actors used to plan, enact and interpret their actions and those of others. Whilst our story offers insights to readers with an interest in organizational discourse, corporate governance and Asian management practices, we refrain from imposing an authoritarian interpretation that insists on identifying with the intentions of the authors.

This research note on a family-controlled firm in Singapore suggests how such businesses, in competitive industries, may grow and survive. Located in the literature on small firm growth, we explore a corporate incident that threatened the survival of the firm under study. An analysis of the manner in which the firm’s managers responded to this threat by developing and launching a new core business, without external intervention, forms the basis of the scholarly contribution of the case. It illustrates how a corporate incident can draw the attention of core shareholders to their need to address specific business and management issues and make subtle organizational changes that ensure the firm’s survival under close control.

There has been a paucity of work on negative traits that may distinguish entrepreneurial success from failure. Disability is an example of a little-researched, negative trait, and blindness is often viewed as an extreme form of disability. Yet there have been blind entrepreneurs through history. How does sight loss relate with entrepreneurial activity? How do blind entrepreneurs create ventures? By observing and conversing with two blind entrepreneurs over six months, we offer preliminary answers to these questions by generating insights on processes of opportunity formation based on the entrepreneurs' adaptive skills. These insights, located in the following five areas of entrepreneurial activity, may illuminate processes of opportunity formation based on: a) Skills development, b) Origins and sources of entrepreneurial motivation, c) Empowerment of disabled people, d) Creation of unique strategies, and e) Entrepreneurial education.