Revised Case Report Form
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1. Introduction
The purpose of this small booklet is to provide model for how to write up the STEP qualitative
case studies which follow a common structure to facilitate cross-case comparison.
The following case report guidelines are written with the intention to create a “master”
descriptive case report format that can be used for both STEP academic and family partners to get
an initial understanding of each case. The master case should be rich, informative and
communicative enough to provide learning data for the research audience. A well written master
case will, for instance, provide STEP researchers with enough data to identify themes which can
be further developed and deepened in separate research papers.
2. Purpose of Study
Let us begin by reasserting that the STEP research study is a corporate entrepreneurship study in
the context of the family form of business organization (versus a family business study). We have
seen some cases which had the tendency to divert from the entrepreneurship focus and emphasis
too much on “family issues”. We are, of course, interested in family issues, but only to the extent
that they have an influence on what we define as entrepreneurial, either as process or outcome. If
we lose focus on the entrepreneurial, we also risk loosing our main potential contribution to the
entrepreneurship literature. The uniqueness of STEP in comparison with other family business
research projects is the focus on entrepreneurship – there are many out there doing good research
on family dynamics, generation succession, agency relations etc. But there are still very few that
address the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in the context of owner-families and family firms.
To guide our research we have agreed on two overall research questions. These questions also
capture the underlying assumptions in the interview questions that direct our actual case research.
The broadest purpose of the case write-ups is of course to give us insight and draw some
conclusions about these questions. In order to assist this process, we want to create a common
structure which allows for easy cross-case comparison. That is not to say that we want to limit
the scope of a case or research area for a STEP team – indeed we want all to extend beyond our
framework and create new rigorous research models. However, for the purposes of cases
contributed to STEP, we propose a common structure and format.
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3. Research Questions and Theoretical Point of Departures
This is the research framework:
Our research framework has been revised according to our experiences from the pilot research
phase as well as the initial European STEP Summit in Paris. Work has especially been devoted to
making the model less complex and overlapping. The there is now a clearer focus on the core
conceptual areas: EO, RBV/Familiness and EP (Entrepreneurial Performance). The revised
model also provides a clearer and easier structure for writing up the cases.
The revised research questions will guide the following research effort:
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Q1: How do business families and their constellation of business activities generate
and sustain entrepreneurial performance across generations?
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Q2: How does entrepreneurial performance relate to continuity and the
transgenerational potential of family groups?
a. What is the relationship of entrepreneurial orientation to entrepreneurial performance outcomes
in the family context?
b. What is the relationship of the family influenced resource pools (familiness) to entrepreneurial
performance outcomes?
c. What is the relationship of the family influenced resource pools (familiness) and
entrepreneurial orientation profiles?
d. What influence do industry, environment, cultural, family life stage and family involvement
have on the familiness resource pool and entrepreneurial orientation?
e. How are entrepreneurial performance outcomes related to transgenerational potential of family
groups?
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4. Basics of the Case Report Format
Before moving on to discussing the different parts of the case report format in detail, we would
like to stress the desired character of the new or revised case reports.
The case reports should be primarily descriptive and not analytical. This means that researchers
should describe their findings under each of the sections and themes and not report their
analytical thoughts and interpretations as they go along in the text. Instead, there should be a
part in the end of each report with analytical discussions, conclusions and propositions.
The analytical discussion, conclusion and propositions should link back to the overall model, and
especially to the two research questions. This final part of the report can/should also contain new
ideas and insights that hopefully have emerged during the case research and that do not directly
tie to any part of the research model. This includes reflections on the fit with the model, extension
in the thinking/model, new discoveries outside of the model, and recommendations for future
research. Researchers can/should also add some pages of analytical reflections and interpretations
across their cases. Finally, please discuss your experiences from the methodology in use;
comments on your methodology, changes and recommendations to methods or instrument.
The total length of the report should be about 30 to 40 pages.
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5. Structure of the Case Report Format
The structure of the descriptive case report follows the different parts of the research model.
5.1 Example Table of Contents for Case Reports
I. Executive Summary
II. Introduction and General Information
a. Profile of the firm
b. Profile of the family
c. Profile of the ownership
d. Profile of the interviews
III. Industry
IV. Environment
V. Family Involvement
VI. Family and Firm Life Stage
VII. Culture
VIII. Entrepreneurial Orientation
a. Autonomy
b. Innovativeness
c. Risk-taking
d. Proactiveness
e. Competitive aggressiveness
IX. Familiness and resource pool
a. Leadership
b. Networks
c. Financial capital.
d. Decision-making
e. Culture (in the organization)
f. Relationships
g. Governance
h. Knowledge
X. Entrepreneurial Performance
a. Entrepreneurial performance
b. Financial performance
c. Social performance
XI. Transgenerational Potential
XII. Analysis, Comments and Conclusions
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5.2 Executive Summary
Each report should begin with a two page executive summary that gives a full overview of the
company and a description of the case. It should include a statement on the industry and scope of
the company or business group; its history and family involvement; key strategic points in the
development of the company; reflections on the entrepreneurial capabilities and outcomes; and an
overview of the key resources and capabilities that have been part of their competitive advantage.
It should conclude with a statement about their prospects for the future. The executive summary
is written as something that other families could read as an introduction to their family and
company.
5.3 Introduction and General Information
The introductory part should include general background information about each of the firms that
comprise their constellation of business activities, including:
 Profile of the firm: name, structure, size, industry, main markets, main products, age and
organizational chart.
 Profile of the family: number of family members, age, position in the firm, number of
generations, in-laws, children etc.
 Profile of the ownership: Number of owners, percentage for each person or organization,
external owners, differentiation of voting power between stocks (when applicable).
 Profile of the interviews: who you interviewed, who the interviewer was, the formal
positions of the interviewees, ownership of the interviewees, date and length of interviews.
Tables and charts are VERY useful in this section as a way to give the reader a quick overview of
the facts.
5.4 Industry
This section is the first part of the model. It should include a description about the industry of the
firm and key aspects of the competitive situation. You should describe the industry’s history, its
structure, characteristics and relevant drivers that impact the family’s business, their business
model and bases for competing as well as global connections and degree of internationalization.
Of particular interest is the industries history and requirements for change, innovation and
entrepreneurial capabilities.
5.5 Environment
Environment refers to the exogenous variables that impact a business family due to the national
or regional structure and environment. Factors that you should describe with focus on how they
influence the business family and their firms in this section are: demographic and social trends as
well as regional and country political and economic situations. Factors such as a flood that wipes
out a business and other “green” environmental issues are also included in environment.
5.6 Family Involvement
This section should describe the facts with regards to the family’s involvement in the ownership
and management of the company. This would include things such as the number of shareholders,
percentage held by different persons and or branches, how the shares are held (i.e. by individuals
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or trust etc.), family members involved in the firm, family members not involved in the firm etc.
I could also give an overview of any findings with regard to the history, as well as positive or
negative views on the family’s involvement in the past and currently.
5.7 Historical Development of the Family Firm
This section should include a more detailed description about the family history and evolution
over time, with a particular focus on the current family life stage. You should also describe the
history and strategic development over time of the firm (mile stones/critical incidents) and how it
is tied to/or not tied to the family life stage. Rich descriptions of both the family’s and the firm’s
historical and stage development allows for interesting comparisons on how these paths have, or
have not, followed each other. The concept of “path dependency” in strategy is that an
organization positively or negatively follows a historical path and that their advantages and
constraints (or in our case their familiness f+ and f-) lie on this path. This section provides the
foundation for this analysis.
5.8 Culture
In this section, you should describe briefly the national, regional and or ethnic cultures and their
impact on the family and business culture. For many business families ethnic considerations and
relations are for instance important for the development of a product or practice that is the basis
of a firm’s advantage or niche. In some cultures, the definitions and views of the family as a
social institution is a cultural norm that significantly influences the development and business
practices in the business, including gender views, leadership and wealth succession norms,
shareholder involvement guidelines etc. The faith orientation of the family also plays an
important role, where family leaders’ Jewish, Catholic or Protestant background influenced their
values which in turn influenced their way of doing business.
5.9 Entrepreneurial Orientation
Entrepreneurial orientation is a key concept in our research model and it is very important to
provide detailed descriptions of the various EO dimensions. EO is a lens through which we study
the processes and activities of entrepreneurship as behavior. Particular focus should be put on
describing various family-related influences on the five EO dimensions. This can be the impact of
a particular family member, the family as group, family-related values, history or traditions on
the EO dimensions. The EO construct and its five dimensions can be thought of as frames that
allow you to dialogue and describe what you see in the organization, either positively, negatively
or neutrally. Remember that the five constructs do not all stand or fall together. You can describe
how they are dependent or independent of one another, why, and the resulting outcomes.
In other words, in this section you should describe the organization on each of the EO dimensions
in a way that shows the family and organizational influences that you think constrain or enhance
their EO. You should also describe how the EO constructs do or do not relate to specific
entrepreneurial outcomes. When making your investigative evaluations and descriptions, please
be precise and rigorous versus generally seeing the family as always fulfilling the construct. The
following definitions should guide your assessment:
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Autonomy is about the freedom granting individuals inside an organization to be creative,
to push for ideas and to change current ways of doing things. Autonomy is the the
independent action of an individual or a team in bringing forth an idea or a vision and
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carrying it through to completion. This can related to of flexible organizational structures,
open communication and the right to fail.
Innovativeness refers to a firm’s tendency to engage in and support new ideas, novelty,
experimentation, and creative processes that may result in new products, services, or
technological processes. There is a continuum of innovativeness, both regarding the scope
and pace of innovation in products, markets and technologies
Risk-taking in the EO construct refers to heavy debt and the degree to which managers are
willing to make large and risky resource commitments – i.e., those which have a
reasonable change of costly failures in relation to new ventures, innovations etc. Risk
taking firms show a tendency to take bold actions such as venturing into unknown new
markets.
Proactiveness refers to firms taking strategic initiatives by anticipating and pursuing new
opportunities. This means a forward-looking perspective and search for new opportunities
that are accompanied by innovative or new venture activity. You should note that there is
an important difference between proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness. The
former refers to how a firm relates to market opportunities in the process of new entry,
whereas the latter refers to how firms relate directly to competitors and respond to trends
already existing.
Competitive aggressiveness refers to a firm’s propensity to directly and intensively
challenge its competitors to achieve entry or improve position, that is, to outperform
industry rivals. A new entry that is an imitation of an existing product or service would be
considered entrepreneurial if the move implies an aggressive, “head-to-head”
confrontation on the market. Competitive aggressiveness also embraces non-traditional
ways of competing in an industry, such as new ways of distributing or marketing
products.
5.10 Familiness and resource pool
The second main theoretical lens we use in SPEP is the familiness construct which is grounded in
the resource based view (RBV) of the firm. In this part of the report you should describe in detail
the family-influenced resource pools of each family and firm. You want to (i) describe or
catalogue what are the key resources and capabilities that you see, (ii) how the family influence
creates a positive or negative familiness factor, and (iii) how are they connected to the
organization’s entrepreneurial performance outcomes and or competitive advantage. You can
also describe how the resources and capabilities are connected to the EO constructs, i.e. what
resources and capabilities do you see that allow them to act “innovatively,” or with “risk taking,”
or proactively etc. – trying to make the connection between EO and resources and capabilities is
an explanatory extension to the entrepreneurship literature. You also need to describe resources
and capabilities that emerge as constrictive to the EO dimensions.
Remember that it is the systemic family influence we are particularly interested in. As you
describe how the family systems influences positively or negatively influence the resources and
capabilities this is when you have a resources (f+ or f-) or positive / negative familiness.
Familiness is simply the description of how family influences resources and capabilities. For
example, systemic interaction issues such as negative family relationships create a (f-) in
leadership, or governance structures that create a (f+) decision making resource, or family values
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that create an (f+) culture or employee loyalty and creativity, etc. The goal is to determine if and
how these systems conditions influence resources and capabilities and connect them to EO
through their positive and negative impact on EO as well as on entrepreneurial performance.
The specific “pools” we are looking into can be divided into seven types of resources:
Leadership –This includes how the family’s leadership both as owners and managers has
impacted the growth and development of the firm. The background, experience and performance
of senior managers, especially the CEO are particularly relevant. It also includes how non-family
leaders are brought into the team and the synergy or constraint that family leaders have with
them.
Networks – This refers to external networks with other individuals and organizations. We are
particularly interested in seeing what connections have had a competitive impact on the
entrepreneurial capabilities of the firm and who has these relationships, i.e. senior family leaders,
for example. These networks create social capital, marketing relationships, good will, brands and
reputation which the family can then leverage for economic gain. Network relationships can also
constrain families if they limit their horizons and or turn to collusion.
Financial capital – In closely held companies and groups, the owners control the capital decision
making and distribution in a unique way. This control can create both an advantage (e.g. creating
long term return expectations) or constraint (e.g. shareholders demanding capital versus
reinvestments). Views on such things as debt, cash-flow, strategic alliances and other forms of
financial options are important in this section. Noting how their capitalization views and
practices influence their entrepreneurial capabilities and outcomes is key.
Decision-making – Looking at who makes what decisions and how they are made is a critical part
of strategy development and execution. Decision making is also tied to family and governance
practices and structures. Noting how family influences decision practices to create an advantage
(e.g. streamlined decisions) or constraint (e.g. disenfranchising certain family members from the
process) highlights the speed, quality and commitment of decision-making.
Culture – The culture of the organization is the beliefs, practices, norms, etc. that create the
internal environment of the business. Components of the culture that we examine include family
and organizational values, vision, practices and legacy traditions, especially those that are familyrelated with impact on the business.
Relationships – The internal interactions of the various family members create a unique aspect of
family firms. We need to examine the nature and function of these relationships as a resource
that can enhance or constrain the business. For example: ties within the family, communication
practices and harmony or conflict in the family, but also differences in character of relationships
between family members active and not active in the firm, differences between generations and
between core families as well as relationships between family members and employees.
Governance – The governance of family organizations is very distinct because it must manage
the interactions of the family and individual family members with the business entity. The
idiosyncratic aspects of family governance are significant for understanding organizational
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performance outcomes. We should explore, for example the ownership structures and processes,
the board of directors, family councils, family involvement guidelines, succession and estate
planning documents, etc.
Knowledge – Industry and business specific knowledge can be the basis for a firm’s competitive
advantage. Multigenerational family companies can have very idiosyncratic knowledge that has
been passed down from one generation to the next. Many of the socialization factors normally
associated with families (i.e. spending time together, talking around the home, working in
summers) are really methods for building tacit knowledge in younger family members. For
example: education, experience, skills and learning capabilities among family members and nonfamily members working in or with the firm describe the tacit, often deeply embedded knowledge
and competencies held by family members.
You need to describe each of these resource pools in detail and especially the family system’s
influence on them over time. For instance, a particular location of a firm can be a very important
resource, and the reason behind a firm’s location can be closely linked to that the owner-family
comes from that location. Similarly, a key resource to a firm’s ability to grow and stay
entrepreneurial can be closely related to a particular skill of a family member, for instance the
founder. A third example is the family name, which sometimes is cornerstone in a firm’s
branding and reputation building.
5.11 Entrepreneurial Performance
The outcome of the family influenced EO and resource pools in our cases are some kind of
entrepreneurial performance. Entrepreneurial performance is “the new” that we are interested in.
Examples of entrepreneurial performance in the STEP Project can be financial, entrepreneurial or
social outcomes. In each case, you need to clearly define whether there are entrepreneurial
performance indicators across time. For each of these indicators, try to get information for as
many years as possible and report it in tables.
Examples of entrepreneurial performance indicators are many of the non-financial aspects of
entrepreneurship such as new products or process innovations, opening up of new (international)
significant markets, or creating new business models for organizational renewals (e.g. turnaround).
Examples of financial performance indicators are growth (sales, revenue, employees), profits,
share price, profitability; ROI, ROE and ROA. If the profitability measures are above industry
average across time, they can also be seen as entrepreneurial performance indicators.
Examples of social performance indicators are stakeholder satisfaction, job-creation,
independence, survival of the firm, social prestige, succession success, and jobs for family
members, philanthropy and other outcomes that are non-economic in nature. We want to look at
these family-based non-economic performance goals and outcomes in order to see if there are
performance “tradeoffs” or “profiles” that describe entrepreneurial families.
5.12 Transgenerational Potential
The last part of the model is what we call transgenerational potential. In this section, you can
describe the answers from interviewees, but you can also start becoming more analytical since
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this refers to an overall conclusion of your case write up. You need to describe your and the
interviewees’ views on whether there is a transgenerational potential based on what has emerged
previously, i.e. can they continue to create new streams of value across many generations or what
are the constraints to this if not.
6. Analysis, Comments and Conclusions
This is the section in which you may move beyond the descriptive case facts and research model
to provide any analysis and comments you might want to make. This could include some
detailed conclusions on each part of the model and your thoughts about the “fit” of the findings
with the model. Also, and most importantly, any new findings or themes that are outside of the
model should be included in this section. You may also extrapolate the findings to discuss your
propositions for further investigation, especially that that relate to whether the family has or does
not have “transgenerational potential” and why.
The Key to the case write-ups is to link them to the Summit and to provide a good material for
further research discussions. We need to make sure that we have the data to drive the
presentations and discussions with the families at the Summit. Crucial is also that we have case
descriptions rich enough to spark our inspiration to develop research papers on the data. Members
of the research committee will need to create a findings booklet for the Summit based on the
cases, but also to create the research instrument for the later stages in the research project. The
closer the case reports are to the model as described above, the more likely it is that we will have
a pool of rich findings to report on, discuss and take further in our research.
In addition, we encourage all teams to follow up yearly with their cases and continue to
incorporate a longitudinal dimension – particularly around key changes.
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