What messages do family businesses need to send to potential customers?

Principal Investigator: José Rojas-Mendez, International Business
Project Title: Reputation Development and Signalling in Family Business Organizations
Funder: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Partner: Welch LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants

In order to help boost the success rates of family businesses, which tend to be small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME), this research project will explore ways of ‘short circuiting’ the costly process by which organizations learn how to optimize their market signalling (i.e., the messages they circulate amongst their markets to advance their own interests). It will draw on the Stereotype Content Model to explore how an emphasis on warmth, competence, and status can contribute to the success of SMEs, especially in relation to attracting new customers. In the process, it will seek determine which of these three criteria are most essential in the marketing activities of family businesses.

The partner organization will facilitate access to representational businesses, which will in turn stand to benefit from the project’s clarification of how they can best leverage the Stereotype Content Model in their marketing activities.