Global electronics giant Avnet announced it now accepts cryptocurrency for all products and services. It joins a small list of large corporations that accept digital currency.

The Fortune 500 company partnered with BitPay, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin payment processing services, so customers can make purchases with bitcoin and bitcoin Cash from their smartphones and laptops.

Avnet has already closed several multi-million dollar cryptocurrency transactions within the first month, company officials announced March 19. This includes a project with Bitcoin.com to develop a new hardware wallet to enable cryptocurrency storage and provide a higher level of security for transactions.

The two American companies say they are building faster, cheaper and more secure transactions.  

“We’re working with BitPay to facilitate secure blockchain payments for all types of customers so they can focus on developing their products, not how to pay for them. Whether it’s bitcoin or bitcoin Cash, we can handle it,” said Sunny Trinh, Avnet’s vice president of demand creation.

Avnet has more than 2 million customers worldwide. With approximately 250,000 Bitcoin transactions being made every day, it was time to provide this convenience to clients, Trinh said.

Bitcoin acceptance can be options, especially for cross-border payments, BitPay Chief Commercial Officer Sonny Singh said.

“Not only is paying with bitcoin easier and faster than with credit cards and bank wires, it is less expensive and acceptance of it is growing,” Singh said.  

When Avnet customers use the BitPay system to pay an invoice, they agree on a conversion rate from digital currency to American dollars, pesos or other currencies. The system then automatically converts it. The rate is valid for 15 minutes. If no action is taken, a new rate is generated.

BitPay should appeal to current and new customers who are already in the cryptocurrency industry, Singh said.

BitPay, one of several cryptocurrency platforms, processed over $1 billion in payments and added new customers including Dish Network, HackerOne and the state of Ohio in 2018, the company said. The BitPay wallet also added integrations with major gift card brands, allowing users to buy gift cards in-app for travel, food and shopping with bitcoin and bitcoin Cash.

While more companies worldwide are accepting cryptocurrency, it continues to struggle to break into the mainstream.

Avnet, which offers end-to-end technology solutions for automotive, communications, energy, wearables, and other industries, is one of a number of large corporations to take on the digital cash.  

Other large businesses that accept bitcoin include:

Microsoft Microsoft accepts bitcoin for use in its online Xbox Store.

Dish Network Dish is the first subscription-based TV provider to adopt Bitcoin.

Overstock The internet retailer accepts bitcoin and other kinds of cryptocurrency.

Newegg Inc. is an online retailer of items including computer hardware and consumer electronics.

Cheap Air Cheap Air accepts bitcoin for flight purchases.

Shopify The e-commerce company is an online selling platform for merchants.

Amazon Amazon does not accept bitcoin but the Purse.io platform allows people to buy Amazon items at a discount if they pay with bitcoin.

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Family businesses are prominent throughout the nation, offering a variety of family-operated goods and services.

Around 30 percent of these businesses make it to the second generation and 12 percent are successful by the third generation, according to the .

How can these businesses achieve success while maintaining their unique family values?

Dr. Luis Gomez-Mejia, W. P. Carey Management and Entrepreneurship Regents Professor at Arizona State University (ASU), researched family businesses and their decision-making drivers.  

His research also delves into the relationships of international management, strategic management and executive compensation.

“I began to realize family firms behave in a different way than non-family firms,” Dr. Gomez-Mejia explained.

A few key differences Dr. Gomez-Mejia noted are family firms are more long-term oriented, more likely to survive when performance is not high and more persistent.

On the other hand, non-family firms are typically more diverse, more likely to internationalize and are driven by economic factors.

Other include an unlikeliness to tackle new business ventures, values that align with the family’s values, low turnover, limited management processes and nepotism.

“ are really unique in terms of independent choices they make in comparison to non-family firms,” Dr. Gomez-Mejia said. “So, family firms want to preserve what I call socioemotional wealth.”

Dr. Gomez-Mejia explained that approximately 70 percent of publicly traded firms in the U.S. are family-founded and employ 80 percent of the workforce.

Those family businesses are often driven by socioemotional wealth, which focuses on family values, preservation of tradition and pride.

He added, “It’s an important utility for the family. They get the satisfaction of having a family identity embedded in the firm, the family image is important.”

PING, a subsidiary of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, is a leading golf equipment brand with 845 employees, 25 buildings and 52 acres around that. It is also a family business.

Dawn Grove, corporate counsel of Karsten Manufacturing Corp., said her grandparents incorporated the company and bought a building to continue production of PING golf equipment more than 50 years ago.

“My grandparents’ values of integrity, ingenuity, continuous improvement and service were naturally weaved into everything we do because my uncles and dad- and later my cousins and I- worked alongside them. Our passion has always been to make the best golf clubs possible, not to have the flashiest marketing shtick or to make the most money,” Grove said.

Although the socioemotional drive often overshadows the financial aspect of conducting business, PING uses its family values to enhance its business practices.

“Our family character inhabits all we do and uplifts our professionalism,” Grove said.

CEOs and other leadership positions of family businesses tend to maintain that position much longer than leaders of non-family businesses, Dr. Gomez-Mejia explained.

“You’ve got an attachment, that continuing identity of the family firm,” Dr. Gomez-Mejia said. “The firm is their baby, usually they launched the company in the first place- they founded the company.”

“What happens is the economic drivers are also important because if you lose that, you also lose the socioemotional wealth,” Dr. Gomez-Mejia said. “The main advice would be to be able to step back and be willing to professionalize when the situation demands that. The willingness to do that will make a difference as to whether or not the company survives and how well it will do in the future.”

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