Corporate Governance in Family Firms: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Like other business forms, corporate governance is a matter of concern for family firms as well. The objective of the work is to study the corporate governance practices of family-owned firms using bibliometric analysis of existing literature. With the help of VOSviewer & Biblioshiny Software, an attempt has been made to develop the visualization patterns based on academic publications growth, most influential authors, country, keyword occurrences, thematic map and co-authorship network. Based on 435 studies conducted during the selected period, the study found the maximum work has been done in the USA followed by Italy, Spain, China and UK, and Anderson and Reeb (2003) is the most cited work in this area. The main focus of prominent studies was on assessing the impact of family ownership on a firm’s performance, and there is unanimity that family firms’ CEOs devote more time and effort to preserve socio-economic wealth, have fewer forecasting errors and perform better. Though ‘corporate strategy’ and ‘governance approach’ are key concepts in family businesses yet it is a less explored areas. Thiss article provides an overview of how the literature on corporate governance and family firms has evolved and a synopsis of the most influential authors, most productive countries, co-word analysis and themes clustering. This study provides a thorough coverage of the existing literature on family governance mechanisms and is helpful for new researchers who want to understand this concept and also for those who are looking to explore new directions in the same field.