Research | Funded Projects

DECISION MODELS CONSTRUCTION IN FAMILY BUSINESS

There are not certified algorithmic models to solve, in a homogeneous way, the “conversion” problem of the cognitive background and decisions dynamics in leaderships. In this direction this paper focuses on a systemic framework, through which more than a few attempts have been made to measure the influence of the family system on the business criteria. The F–PEC model identifies three main influence sources: the power (P), that measures the involvement degree of family members in governance and management; the experience (E), defined as the influence of further generational transitions in terms of learning; the culture (C), namely the family values and commitment in business affairs. In a systemic perspective, another contribution is given by the Viable Systems Approach – VSA, that describes the Family Business as the interaction effect between the viable “enterprise” and “family” systems: the relationships between the two systems are interpreted according to the relevance model. As for the theoretical framework of the VSA and the investigation problem of this paper – the transfer of the practice team building in the familiar successions – the evolutive dynamics of the system refers to a “conceptual matrix”, namely a representation of decision moments in terms of the enterprise itself and its way of acting. In particular, it is necessary to refer to four conceptualizations within the field of the entrepreneurial phenomena: the set of the structural components that characterize the organization structure; roles, activities and tasks of each component within the organizational units; the logic relationships between the components for the common aim of the enterprise survival; constraints and behavioural rules and/or operation of the described components. The described concepts are fundamental to understand the team building decision dynamics: according to the definition of the structure idea and respecting the organization plan, roles and process relations, that are suitable for the team building need, have to be implemented. Hence, it is right to think that the familiar decision maker, as for the work teams organization design, must consider the constraints of the actual structure and the ones of the particular efficiency exigencies of the system for the specific work order. From a practical point of view, the concepts of “enterprise” and “family” have their unit in the leadership decisions, that have to be accurately examined. To achieve this aim, an approach, that refers to a Competence Model (CM) and to a Pattern Mining algorithm, is analysed. The competence representation is defined in terms of Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes. Precisely, Knowledge represents the set of support information for a given task; Skill is the practical capacity for the development of the task; Attitude represents a particular behavior in facing some situations. The CM, which focuses on Knowledge (K), Skills (S) and Attitudes (A), is shortly indicated as KSA Model, implemented by some Lightweight Ontologies, written in SKOS language and similar to taxonomies. Such ontologies are able to model a particular domain in a hierarchical way and define simple relations. Each element of type K, S and A is characterized by a score, that discriminates the competence levels for a particular knowledge domain. Pattern Mining techniques are useful to find relevant patterns in data sequences. In this research, we use a Pattern Mining algorithm called “Apriori”, constructed considering that, if a given item set is frequent, its subsets are frequent too. Considering both the KSA model and the Apriori algorithm, the possible steps of a design activity for family – run businesses DSS are the following: Define a worker KSA model; Construct a work order KSA model; Identify some association rules among workers, Use the Apriori algorithm; Establish the DSS criteria via a data fusion.