Opening up the black box of family entrepreneurship across generations: A systematic literature review

Abstract

What makes some families more entrepreneurial than others? How are they able to nurture entrepreneurship across generations? These are fundamental questions for family business and entrepreneurship research. In particular, the multigenerational dimension of entrepreneurial families (EFs) and the new family logics that emerge as the family grows may lead to different types of entrepreneurial activities. To shed light on these questions, we conduct a systematic literature review of 90 peer-reviewed articles focusing on the characteristics and behaviours of EFs, family members and their business activities. Specifically, we first identify and categorise the family-related factors characterising EFs across generations. Second, we link the identified factors to different types of entrepreneurial activities pursued as the generations advance, distinguishing two dimensions: mode of organising (internal vs. external), and degree of relatedness (related vs. unrelated). Finally, we highlight the main gaps in the literature and provide a future research agenda.