No Family Company Without Family: The Professionalization of a Chinese Family Business in Hong Kong

Abstract

No Family Company Without Family: The Professionalization of a Chinese Family Business in Hong Kong

A knowledge-based perspective on the professionalization of SMEs: a systematic literature review and future research directions

“…Organizational restraints have been proposed to include inertia (Chirico and Nordqvist, 2010), institutional pressure and family essence (Marett et al , 2020; see also Tsui-Auch, 2004), tensions (van Helvert-Beugels et al , 2020) and micropolitics (Chau and Wong, 2021), which may negatively influence the professionalization of SMEs.…”

“…An additional attribute emerged inductively from the analysis of articles. It relates to the fact that professionalization has been considered complex (Costa et al , 2021; Chau and Wong, 2021; Polat, 2020; Howorth et al , 2016), multidimensional (Dekker et al , 2013; Dekker et al , 2015; Stewart and Hitt, 2012; Polat and Benligiray, 2022), not permanently acquired (Hall and Nordqvist, 2008), context-specific (Chau and Wong, 2021) and processual (Hall and Nordqvist, 2008). Scholars have proposed an alternative view to the traditional view of professionalization linked to the introduction of professional governance, arguing that such an introduction is a static and simplistic view of professionalization that discounts the complexity of the phenomenon.…”

“…Scholars have proposed an alternative view to the traditional view of professionalization linked to the introduction of professional governance, arguing that such an introduction is a static and simplistic view of professionalization that discounts the complexity of the phenomenon. They have argued that being successful at professionalization does not ensure that the achieved results are permanently acquired, since changing circumstances may influence professionalization results (Hall and Nordqvist, 2008) and spark a revival of previously-known management modes (Chau and Wong, 2021). Additionally, scholars have highlighted the concurrence of multiple dimensions of professionalization that do not exclusively relate to professional governance, proposing that they could provide greater explanations of organizational internal dynamics and relationships (Costa et al , 2021) and potentially result in a better understanding of the influence on organizational performance (Dekker et al , 2013; Dekker et al , 2015).…”

“…Over the years, management and organization studies scholars have shown increased interest in how organizations attempt professionalization – a process through which an organization is transformed into a “more formalized, structured, and institutionalized corporation” (Dekker et al , 2015, p. 516–517; Chau and Wong, 2021, p. 265) through changes to its organizational structure, policies, procedures, practices and resources (Polat, 2020; Heredia-Calzado and Duréndez, 2019).…”

“…Scholars have also attempted to understand how changes to governance mechanisms (Gedajlovic et al , 2004), organizational structure and systems (Eddleston et al , 2019) or sociocultural aspects (Hall and Nordqvist, 2008) influence the likelihood of successful professionalization. Furthermore, scholars have investigated how potential intervening conditions – such as individual characteristics (Hsu et al , 2013) or organizational values (Chau and Wong, 2021) – influence professionalization. Finally, scholars have shown how professionalization contributes to organizational growth (McKelvie et al , 2021), internationalization (Costa et al , 2021), improved performance (Pauli, 2020) and innovation (Duran et al , 2016; Chaochotechuang et al , 2020).…”