Ripple Effects on Family Firms

Cater, J. J., & Beal, B. D. 2014. Ripple effects on family firms from an externally induced crisis. Journal of Family Business Management, 4(1): 62-78. [PDF, journal]

From the Introduction:

Using a resource-based view of the firm perspective (Barney, 1991; Habbershon & Williams, 1999), we examine the positive and negative effects of an externally induced crisis on family business owners. We study the resources and capabilities of family firms that led to their survival, profitability, and growth in this situation. Specifically, we study the ramifications of the BP oil spill on family business owners in the Acadian Coastal Parishes of Terrebonne and Lafourche in south central Louisiana. The principal city of the area and government center of Terrebonne Parish is Houma (population 33,727 in the 2010 U.S. Census). Among Louisiana parishes, the two neighboring Acadian Coastal parishes ranked third ($169,590,811 for Terrebonne) and sixth ($96,434,877 for Lafourche) respectively in net dollar claims paid by BP as of February 6, 2012 (Gulf Coast Claims Facility, 2012). Considering the populations of Terrebonne (111,860 in 2010) and Lafourche (96,318 in 2010) (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010), the effect per capita on these two parishes places them within the top five in the state. Central to the events of the oil spill and directly involved in the clean-up operation, we believe that Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes are representative of the entire Gulf Coastal region and that concepts applied to these family businesses have generalizability to family firms in other crisis situations.

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