Family Owned Business Institute

Research Scholar's Abstracts 2005 - Alan Robinson, Bill Woolridge

The Impact of Lean Manufacturing on Family Firm Performance and Internal Stakeholder Relationships
Alan G. Robinson, Bill Woolridge
2005

By examining the impact of a professional intervention in a family firm the research proposed is designed to contribute to the field's understanding of several high priority issues currently being addressed in the family business literature. Specifically, the study will examine the impact of the intervention on multiple dimensions of the firm's performance, especially its non-financial goals, and the individual internal stockholders, including the founder, the next generation, and non-family employees.

This study will focus on a small manufacturing firm with around 100 employees. The firm is located in New England and was formerly a division of a Fortune 500 corporation. In 1994 as the market for business's products was declining, the parent corporation made the decision to divest the business. Ultimately the division's general manager and controller purchased the business and it began operations as a privately held corporation in 1995.