Family Firms, 2012 Case Studies on the Management of Growth, Decline, and Transition SpringerBriefs in Business Series, Vol. 37

?This is the third in a series of casebooks on issues faced by families owning and managing a business. This volume focuses on the management of growth, decline, and transition in such firms. These cases are clustered together because family firms grow, decline, and grow again, often transforming themselves several times in the course of their existence, as they face succession issues, financial constraints, and changes in market demand. Managing change also has significant impact on the firm-owning families and their individual members, especially when making decisions under conditions of uncertainty.  The eight cases presented in this volume, as those in the previous two casebooks, were developed as a response to the lack of a diversity and selection of cases on family business. The cases emerged by engaging students to help develop them as a part of the curriculum for teaching family business to both graduate and undergraduate business school students in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Finland.  However, their utility goes beyond the classroom and should be informative to consultants to family firms and family business owners and members as well.  ?

​Introduction.- Reading a Family Business Case.- Case One: Bacardi Limited – A growing family’s firm in a consolidating industry.- Case Two: Thai-Rolls Restaurants – Growth and Delegating Control to Non-Family Management.- Case Three: Seattle Homes and the Waterman Family – Transitions in the family firm.- Case Four: Sol News vs. the Internet – At the crossroads of entering the family firm or starting a new venture.- Case Five: Sarmak and Sarteks – Transition in the family firm, to stay or not stay.- Case Six: California Steel & Supply – Transition in key employees.- Case Seven: Risk Strategies Management, Inc. – A family managed technology firm goes public.- Case Eight: White’s Gourmet Foods, Inc. – Building a multi-billion dollar private family firm.- About the Authors. ​