Succession and corporate performance: the appropriate successor in family firms

Since the government opened to the establishment of new private banks in 1990s, the competition in banking industry has become fierce in Taiwan. Especially, the establishment of financial holding companies after 2000s has resulted in the merge among financial institutions. The competition in banking industry becomes even fiercer. The price war of interest rate among banks gradually shortens the deposit and lending rate difference in banking industry that banks could no longer survive with the traditional business of deposit and lending rate differences. Banks have to attract customers with different service quality, satisfy customer needs, and create new profits for banking industry. Generally speaking, service quality is related to customer satisfaction after receiving service, and satisfaction becomes the internal assessment indicator of financial industry for customers. A lot of excellent foreign businesses or national financial institutions present brilliant competitiveness in the field of finance by the specialty and service quality. Taking Land Bank of Taiwan as the research subject, this study aims to discuss the effect of service quality on customer loyalty and corporate performance in financial industry.
It is discovered in this study that an enterprise enhancing the service quality through the mediation effect of customer loyalty could effectively promote the corporate performance. For this reason, the relationship between customer loyalty and service quality, corporate performance are established in this study, and the results of the analysis could be the reference for banking industry in Taiwan.

The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of business orientation on the success of small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Corporate performance is a dependent variable, whereas business orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional orientation are used as independent variables. This cross-section analysis was based on a quantitative survey design. The target population consisted of 72 SMEs (industrial, commercial and service) identified by the Saudi Chamber of Commerce in Riyadh. The companies were selected from Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha, Dammam and Bisha, which were founded before March 1, 2005 with less than 100 employees in Saudi Arabia. The findings showed that consumer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional cooperation had a substantial positive influence on the success of SMEs in Saudi Arabia during the study period. Market orientation dimensions, in particular, demonstrated a modest relationship to company efficiency. It was concluded that the greater the orientation of the business, the higher the output and the income of the enterprises. SME owners/managers are advised to understand the consumer orientation dimensions that have a positive effect on the success of their firms. Involved parties also need to establish more consistent business-oriented strategies that assess corporate success in order to boost the output of Saudi companies.

Czech family businesses are currently experiencing their first changeover of generations in history. The first generation (founders or successors), two or more generations collectively operate in management and administrative authorities. This article aims to compare and evaluate preference for use of debt or equity financing in family businesses with the differing involvement of generations and the diversity of its allocation for the specific need of the company’s growth. This empirical study is performed based on a qualitative analysis of 245 family businesses. Hypotheses were confirmed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. This study confirms the dependence of equity and debt financing on the number of generations in management. This brings differing perspectives, opinions, and practices for financial management in the sense of a preference for debt or equity financing. The need for debt arises at the moment of compensating the transfer of ownership between generations. The analysis results indicate that family businesses managed by one generation prefer equity financing, companies managed by first and second generations prefer debt financing, and companies managed by second and third generations prefer equity financing.

Acknowledgment
The result was created in solving the project TA ČR ETA 2 (STA02018TL020) “Family businesses: Value drivers and value determination in the process of succession”, TL02000434. We are grateful also to representatives of enterprises who were willing to participate in this research.