Abstract
PurposeThe field of scientific research on small and medium-sized family businesses has been growing exponentially and the aim of this paper is to systematize the body of knowledge to develop an agenda for the future.Design/methodology/approachAdopting comparative bibliometric analyses on 155 articles (from 1989 until 2018) the authors provide a systematic assessment of the scientific research about small family firms, unveiling the structure and evolution of the field. Bibliographic coupling, co-citation analysis and co-occurrence analysis are adopted to identify the most influential studies and themes.FindingsFour clusters of research are reviewed: succession in family SMEs, performances of family SMEs, internationalization of family SMEs and organizational culture of family SMEs.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the field of family SMEs by providing a systematic analysis of the scientific knowledge. Reviewing those clusters allows to providing avenues and reflections for future research and further practice.
Highlights
In many countries, a vital part of the economy is represented by family businesses
This paper aims at investigating the evolution of the field of study about family SMEs, looking at a systematization of knowledge to build a scientific map of the various streams of research, which answer the following research question: what is the state of the art of the scientific research about family SMEs? To answer the question, a bibliometric analysis has been deployed
The methodology adopted in this study aims to provide a map of the research field of family SMEs and its structure
Summary
A vital part of the economy is represented by family businesses. Within UK family businesses, SMEs represent the 99.6% (IFB, 2019), making family SMEs the vast majority of family businesses. SMEs are firms with less than 250 employees, where family members have voting control and family members are in managerial positions (Calabro and Mussolino, 2013). Despite the importance of family SMEs, family business studies do not consider the main features that being a small and medium sized firm could bring in the investigation of specific organizational phenomena Published in Journal of Family Business Management. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http:// creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
