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Here is a copy of the call from Business Ethics Quarterly, for papers that relate family business to corporate social responsibility, ethics, natural environment, stakeholder, sustainability and related social issues.  Recently at the Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC) papers were presented that focused on these issues; but THE CALL IS GENERAL. 

Regards, Laura Spence  

Call for Manuscripts – Special Edition of Business Ethics Quarterly

Due June 1, 2009 to http://editorialexpress.com/beq

STAKEHOLDER THEORY, ETHICS, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY & FAMILY <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">ENTERPRISE</st1:city></st1:place>

Guest Editors:

Bradley R. Agle, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Pittsburgh</st1:placename></st1:place>

James J. Chrisman, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>

Ronald K. Mitchell, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Texas</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Tech</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>

Laura J. Spence,  Royal Holloway, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">London</st1:placename></st1:place>

CALL:

Family enterprises-firms in which members of a family exert significant influence through controlling ownership and/or management--are the most common and pervasive form of business organization throughout the world (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, 1999, Journal of Finance). While most small and medium sized firms are family controlled, founding family members are active in some of the largest firms in the world such as Cargill, Ford, IKEA,  and Wal-Mart. Among the Standard and Poor's "500" firms, family enterprises have been found to out-perform their non-family counterparts (Andersen & Reeb, 2003, Journal of Finance). Research indicates the long term orientation of family enterprises, as these firms endure through multiple generations of leaders and industry life cycles (Miller & Le-Breton Miller, 2005, Long Range Planning).

Two distinct sub-systems of family and business co-exist in family enterprises, sometimes peacefully, and sometimes not so peacefully (e.g., Mitchell, Morse, & Sharma, 2003; Journal of Business Venturing). The differences between the family and business systems are fundamental in nature, and as such cause problems in the ongoing social interface within these organizations and among their stakeholders.  The incidence of misunderstandings, miscommunications, working at cross-purposes, increased politicization of work roles, misuse of the natural environment, and other social misalignments (Mitchell & O'Neil, 1998, Small Business and Enterprise Development) increase the incidence of social friction (Williamson, 1981, American Journal of Sociology), providing a fertile field for ethical dilemmas, theory-of-the-firm-based problems, and environmental challenges. 

Does family involvement in a firm influence how the firm responds to its stakeholder, ethical, and environmental demands and responsibilities?  Although important advances have been made in general regarding stakeholder, ethical and environmental issues in business, limited attention has been devoted to exploring stakeholder, ethical, and environmental issues within family-enterprise research.

For this special edition of Business Ethics Quarterly, we seek to encourage research that explores one or more points of intersection concerning how family businesses, and their business families, deal with stakeholder and ethics challenges, including challenges relating to the natural environment. Although not exhaustive, questions of special interest center on the following:

• What are the unique moral challenges that families in business face, and what does extant research have to say about how these challenges are met?

• How do existing theories and frameworks of business ethics or corporate social responsibility apply to firms where family members are involved?

• What can stakeholder theory contribute to explaining the impact of family involvement in the firm?

• How might stakeholder theory develop to clarify the diverse and often unpredictable demands of family involvement?

• To what extent can stakeholder research illuminate the role and impact of gender, family mix, generational differences, in-law relationships, and other dimensions of family structure in family firms? For example, when different family relationship groups consider themselves to be legitimate stakeholders, with high power and urgent needs, how does the added familial complexity among these seemingly "definitive" stakeholders require new stakeholder theory development?

• To what extent do theories of duty to stakeholders differ with respect to family and non-family enterprises?

• What is the role of virtue in the public and private morality found in family enterprises?

• How is the ethical blueprint of a founder replicated, and how does it evolve, through succession processes in family firms? To what extent is leaving an ethical legacy a motivator for founding members of family firms?

• Do the ethical issues in family firms in developing country contexts differ from those in developed countries? What are the reasons for the differences, or lack thereof?

• Are family firms more or less ethical than non-family firms, and if so, in what ways? What are the reasons for the differences, or lack thereof?

• How do stakeholder and ethical theories, and corporate social responsibility frameworks, relate to environmental and sustainable development issues in firms where family members are involved?

• To what extent does being a family-intensive entity influence how environmental sustainability is addressed? 

To address these questions, we seek a broad range of submissions, and encourage conceptual and empirical (quantitative or qualitative) contributions that make use of the various perspectives emerging within the stakeholder, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, environmental, and other literatures in relevant fields of inquiry.  We welcome normative/ philosophical/critical and conventional social scientific manuscripts.  Manuscripts should ideally make a contribution that justifies their length, but in any event should not exceed 12,000 words including references, tables, figures, and appendices.  Contributors should consult the "information for contributors" page at the BEQ section of the Society for Business Ethics website (www.businessethicsquarterly.org); here you will find information on BEQ's expectations for manuscripts and detailed instructions for submitting a manuscript.  When submitting a manuscript for this special edition, please include a reference to "Special edition:  family business" in the "comments" box on the submissions website. Manuscripts will receive double-blind review, and acceptance decisions will be made by one or more of BEQ's editors in conjunction with the guest editors.

Please contact guest editor Ron Mitchell (ronald.mitchell@ttu.edu) for further details.