Event-sampling method with experimental design: A promising method for investigating microfoundational phenomena within family businesses

Abstract

Over the past decades the field of family business has witnessed a surge in publications and experienced meaningful changes that have served to increase its legitimacy and establish the field as an independent area of academic inquiry. Along with these advancements, scholars have called for experimental research designs that can reveal the influence of individual-level, microfoundational phenomena underlying macro-level family business phenomena. Given the challenge of conducting such studies, the event-sampling method with experimental design (ESME) approach is highlighted as a new opportunity for family business scholars to further enrich their methodological toolbox. Fundamentally, the ESME approach is a longitudinal, repeated-sampling method with experimental design that provides researchers with the opportunity to investigate the effects of various micro-level phenomena within the family business. By facilitating the incorporation of familial variables and processual elements in family business research, the ESME approach can account for the longitudinal and dynamic interplay of family and family business phenomena. Overall, ESME is a method with the potential to help researchers answer many of the “how” questions that remain unanswered in the field of family business. A description of ESME is offered, relevant challenges and opportunities in family business research are identified, and best practices for ESME are shared to support the work of family business scholars.