Definition Of Family Business Research Articles

Timing the transition: gender diversity’s role in family IPOs

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between board gender diversity (BGD) and the time to Initial Public Offering (IPO), which stands as an entrepreneurially risky choice, particularly challenging in family firms. We also investigate the moderating role of family ownership dispersion (FOD).Design/methodology/approachWe draw on an integrated theoretical framework bringing together the upper echelons theory and the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) perspective and on hand-collected data on a sample of Italian family IPOs that occurred in the period 2000–2020. We employ ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and alternative model estimations to test our hypotheses.FindingsBGD positively affects the time to IPO, thus, it increases the time required to go public. FOD negatively moderates this relationship. Our findings remain robust with different measures for BGD, FOD, and family business definition as well as with different econometric models.Originality/valueThe article develops literature on family firms and IPO and it enriches the academic debate about gender and IPOs in family firms. It adds to studies addressing the determinants of the time to IPO by incorporating gender diversity and the FOD into the discussion. Finally, it contributes to research on women and outcomes in family firms.

Navigating the path of family business research: a personal reflection

PurposeThis article provides a personal response to the questions raised by Ratten et al. (2023) on what family business researchers have learnt about the family business field and tips for the future.Design/methodology/approachThis viewpoint article takes an autoethnographic reflective approach to address the five questions posed to distinguished family business researchers in Ratten et al. (2023).FindingsIn family business research, scholars must address key intersectionalities. These include evolving gender dynamics, global reach, the impact of technology and the growing importance of sustainability. Women's roles in family businesses need thorough examination, while family business definitions must account for global operations. The influence of technology demands exploration, and sustainability is crucial for businesses of all sizes. Scholars should offer theory and practical guidance, bridging the gap between research and real-world application in this evolving landscape.Originality/valueThis article highlights the critical intersectionalities shaping the family business field. Through the autoethnographic reflective approach, the article provides both verbatim advice and future-oriented tips, delivering original and innovative insights into the needs of the family business management domain.

Editorial: A new definition of family business

Editorial: A new definition of family business

Review of differences between listed and unlisted family business research trends: a corporate governance context

PurposeThis review assesses state of knowledge by critically comparing empirical literature on relationships between corporate governance and performance with regards to listed and unlisted family business.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies a systematic review approach to assess 159 corporate governance and performance studies on family business published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2016.FindingsResults from the review demonstrate heterogeneity in definition of family business, limited study of indicators of ownership and board dimensions of corporate governance in unlisted family businesses and over concentration on financial measures by listed family business studies. Possible solution was offered for potential research gaps.Originality/valueThis is the first review that comprehensively compares studies in listed and unlisted family business from the perspectives of corporate governance. Findings from this review may contribute to promoting research in corporate governance in the context of listed and unlisted family businesses.

Operationally defining family SMEs: a critical review

PurposeIn this study, we investigated the dilemma of devising an operational family business definition in the SME context. The existing family business literature mostly agrees with the validity of a theoretical model called F-PEC, which identifies family businesses by evaluating three dimensions: power, experience, and culture. Nonetheless, empirical studies on family SMEs still use just one or a few elements with many different thresholds to operationally define family SMEs, highlighting an unsolved definitional divergence among scholars, which limits the possibility of investigating the potential effects of family attributes on firms’ goals, structures, processes, and performance.Design/methodology/approachEmploying ancestry searching, online databases, and issue-by-issue searches from two decades (1990–2019), we analyzed 255 empirical studies that specified a family business’s operational definition (despite posing different research questions) and used a sample of small-sized and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).FindingsResults showed ownership and governance/management are the most used elements in the operational definitions provided in the literature to date, but that there still is not a universally adopted operational definition of family SMEs in use today.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the first to comprehensively analyze and review the operationalized use of family SME definitions in the literature.

Micro Family Businesses in the Czech Republic from the Perspective of Multiple Criteria Decision-Making

Research background: Family businesses are undoubtedly important in both the Czech and international economy. They also play a crucial part in globalization. They have always been providing the largest job source in the private sector all over the world. However, over all these years, there has not been a unified definition of family business, which makes the government hard to distinguish between family and non – family business. Thus, this complicated the administrative and legal process. Finally, in 2019, the definition of the family business in the Czech Republic has been specified, which has facilitated many administrative and legal processes. Simultaneously, the management of Czech family businesses is currently facing the first “post-revolutionary” transition of generations. Many family businesses are deciding whether to maintain or to change the type of business entities. Purpose of the article: This article aims to determine the most advantageous legal form of business for micro family businesses. Methods: This article uses the Saaty pair comparison method and TOPSIS method. In addition to the methods of analysis, synthesis, and comparison, the selected methods of multiple criteria decision making are used in the article. Findings & Value added: The results of the decision analysis revealed that, based on the criteria considered (legal, accounting, tax and managerial), the most optimal legal form of the family business is self-employed. Apart from the results, the research adds value to this topic for the Czech business environment, in which future scholars can compare between the Czech Republic and the other countries.

Measuring Success in Small Family Businesses - A Socioemotional Wealth Perspective

The goal of this paper is to reveal typical non-financial success measures in small family business in Croatia. Socioemotional wealth model is used as a basis for questionnaire construction. Questionnaire items represent family typical success measures and are adaptable to different business activities. Since family business is heterogeneous it was necessary to give a definition of chosen sample – small family hotels. Given definition of small family business was used as a key to separate the family and non-family businesses in this survey. Chosen, socioemotional based, success measures were tested on a sample of small family hotels by using logistic regression. Based on the statistical results, community acknowledgments and continuation of family business are the most important non-financial success measures for Croatian example.

Innovation in Family Business and Cooperation: a literature review

In this paper, after some clarifications about the definition and characteristics of Family Business (FB), a literature review on innovation and cooperation in FB has been conducted. As a consequence, a research gap regarding how FB develops innovation when cooperating with external factors has been identified. In particular, specific characteristics of FB have been analysed regarding innovation and cooperation, such as longer-term vision, risk aversion, and relatively lack of professionalism of FB workers.

Platform for Sharing Research on Family Business

<p>Even though majority of textbooks, journals choose to adopt a legal definition of the family business wherein the family business is defined as an enterprise where the members of a single family are the majority shareholders, but in this new millennium where multiple forms and derivatives of the organizational forms, a new definition of family business needs to be adopted.</p>

The F-PEC Revisited: From the Family Business Definition Dilemma to Foundation of Theory

In proposing a scale to solve the “family business definition dilemma” in 2002, the F-PEC scale sparked considerable interest and research in our field, particularly at a time when family business was in its formative stage of development. We respond to the invitation of the Family Business Review editor to tell our story concerning how the F-PEC finally came to life. We highlight research that has been done in respect to the three F-PEC dimensions on the individual, the group/family, and at the organizational levels, and outline future research opportunities that might inform a theory of the family business.

Inspecting the Achilles heel: a quantitative analysis of 50 years of family business definitions

Despite numerous attempts by academics from many disciplines and various regional contexts, there is still no agreement on a definition of family business. Subjecting 258 definitions found in work published over the past 50 years (1964–2013) to the bibliometric techniques of consensus and co-word analysis to uncover intellectual structure, we identify the key terms used to underpin the concept of family business and to track the progress made towards consensus on its definition. We find an emergence of definitional key terms by which scholars attempt to clarify the concepts of family and family business, and growing agreement of what criteria should be met in framing a definition. This study contributes to the literature by offering a synthesis of what constitutes a family business, as well as a systematic and quantitative analysis of its evolution over a half century of research. It also shows how bibliometric tools can be used to shed light on fields where definitional ambiguity persists.

A Conceptual Model of Family Businesses Succession from Corporate Gene Perspective

Based on the concept of a “biological legal person”, this paper puts forward a new definition of family business: family business is a form of biological organization controlled by family genes. Family genes are the decisive factor for its growth and continuation. The process of family business succession can be regarded as the inheritance of genes. The genes of family business succession are a combination of genetic elements having characteristics of structure, stability, heritability, expressiveness and variability. The process of family business succession includes the mechanisms of genetic heredity and variation.

How has the family firm literature addressed its heterogeneity through classification systems? An integrated analysis

Extant literature recognizes both family business heterogeneity and the need to identify relevant definitional criteria to distinguish family firms, leading to the emergence of typologies, taxonomies and classification schemes. This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing classifications, which we the compare with the core conceptual elements embedded in 258 family business definitions. Our analyses enables an identification of the characteristics of the entities being classified, and then we proceed to reflect on their usefulness and effectiveness for classifying family firms. Based on the integrated analysis, we then propose some recommendations and future research lines in order to develop a workable classification of family firms.

Influence of the lack of a standard definition of “family business” on research into their international strategies☆

Research into the internationalisation strategies of family businesses is plagued by the excessive use of many and varied concepts to define these companies, and often leads to diverse and disparate results. The conceptual spectrum used by researchers is very broad, ranging from the simplest definition, in which a company is classified as a family business on the basis of the perception of its owners and/or managers, to others which consider variables such as ownership, management, involvement of the family in the business, continuity and combinations thereof. The results obtained highlight the need for those researching family business internationalisation strategies to use a standard definition of family business, so enabling us to continue advancing in our knowledge of this topic and avoid coming to different conclusions merely as a result of having based our research on different definitions.

How has the family firm literature addressed its heterogeneity through classification systems? An integrated analysis

Extant literature recognizes both family business heterogeneity and the need to identify relevant definitional criteria to distinguish family firms, leading to the emergence of typologies, taxonomies and classification schemes. This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing classifications, which we the compare with the core conceptual elements embedded in 258 family business definitions. Our analyses enables an identification of the characteristics of the entities being classified, and then we proceed to reflect on their usefulness and effectiveness for classifying family firms. Based on the integrated analysis, we then propose some recommendations and future research lines in order to develop a workable classification of family firms.

What hampers innovation in Mexican family firms?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent different obstacles (financial, knowledge, market, and perception) affect the propensity of Mexican family firms to engage in innovation activity. Second, it examines whether the perception of these obstacles differs between two subgroups of family firms, considering levels of ownership and family management control. Design/methodology/approach Information was gathered through a CIS methodology-based questionnaire applied to 161 CEOs of Mexican family firms. Binomial logistic regressions were performed identifying obstacles that were truly relevant for the family firm subgroups in the sample. Findings For subgroup 1, knowledge and market factors were significant and negatively related to the propensity to engage in innovation activities; for subgroup 2, only market factors were relevant. The results also show how the tenure of the CEO, the number of generations involved, and the family involvement in management and non-management positions affect the results obtained. Practical implications Implications for family business scholars embrace the assessment criteria of different family business definitions. While the implications for managers and policy makers include the recognition of the factors that affect innovation in Mexican family firms in order to design and implement adequate strategies to overcome them. Originality/value This study addresses some of the raised demands in the literature. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first attempt to explore the factors hampering innovation in family firms in Latin America. Second, this study was undertaken in response to the call for exploring variations in innovation behavior across different family business types in regards to ownership and family management control. Moreover, this study responds to the call to analyze financial and non-financial factors separately and to expand the geographical areas, sectors, and sizes of family firms, more specifically in Latin America.

No Consensus in Sight: An Analysis of Ten Years of Family Business Definitions in Empirical Research Studies

Family business (FB) scholars often criticize the fact that FB research has not yet developed a commonly accepted definition of what constitutes an FB. At the same time, the literature lacks empirical evidence for this claim. Hence, we collected all empirical FB research articles published between 2002 and 2011 in the five leading FB research journals to examine the types of FB definitions used in the literature and to determine how their usage relates to bibliographical and methodological contextual factors. The resulting 238 articles were analyzed in terms of their underlying approaches to defining FBs. Our paper provides empirical support for the notion that FB research has not yet found a commonly accepted definition of FB. Most definitions can be classified as being rooted in the components-of-involvement approach (44% of all evaluated articles), in the essence approach (21%), or in a combination of the two (33%). We also find that the type of FB definition used in empirical research in our sample is significantly associated with the publication outlet, the continent of data collection, the number of authors and the stock market listing status of analyzed firms.

Toward a Measurable Definition of Family Business: Surname Matching and its Application in the Czech Republic

Family-controlled enterprises play a powerful role in the world economy constituting more than 30 % of all companies with sales in excess of $1 billion. It is therefore no wonder that academics have been attracted to studying family businesses. As an emerging field, the family business discipline has been developing in two areas: defining family business and measuring performance gaps between family and non-family businesses. In the Czech Republic, “succession issues” are of particular interest. In the early 1990’s there were fewer family businesses due to the existence of a state-controlled economy (with the possible exception of those who ran family businesses before the nationalization of private companies by the communist government after the SecondWorld War). Now it is quite common for owners (fathers and mothers) to transfer businesses to their heirs or to at least consider it. From this perspective, the family business situation in the Czech Republic resembles the situation in other non-socialistic countries around the world. However, the role of family businesses in the Czech Republic has been neglected and there has not been any significant research pertaining to this issue. The definition of family business is crucial because researchers compare family and non-family businesses from differing perspectives. Researchers conclude that due to unique institutional legal contexts in various countries it makes no sense to derive a universal definition. Nevertheless, each study must explicitly state what is understood by the term “family business” because different definitions lead to different findings. Despite the fact that there is no universal definition, three dimensions are inherent in each definition of family business: ownership (one or several families hold a significant part of the share capital), management (family members hold top management positions), or board-membership (family members retain significant control over the company via membership in the executive or supervisory board). Int Adv Econ Res (2015) 21:119–120 DOI 10.1007/s11294-014-9487-7

Review of Family Business Definitions: Cluster Approach and Implications of Heterogeneous Application for Family Business Research

This review article displays several attempts to define family businesses as well as a systematization approach to get new insights about the relationship between family business definitions and their application under different conditions such as legal framework, culture or regional understanding of family. Potential explanations for the ambiguity of what is meant by family firms are revealed by reviewing 267 journal articles. A consensus about the object of investigation would result in a deeper understanding of family firms’ uniqueness, might lead to more reliable comparative studies as well as interdisciplinary work (e.g., finance and family firms) and enables a quicker consolidation of family business research, especially in contrast to research on small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the present review contributes to the development of family business research by providing an initial attempt to comprehensively systematized existing family firm definitions which could be used by researchers in family business research.

Family Business Performance from a Governance Perspective: A Review of Empirical Research

Given the complexity of the family business phenomenon, empirical research has still reached no consensus on whether family control is beneficial or detrimental to firm performance. To shed new light on this issue, this paper covers more than 350 articles published in 37 top finance and management journals. More specifically, it provides an in‐depth analysis of the family business governance system in three steps. First, after examining the various family business definitions and measures of performance used in empirical research, the authors discuss the findings on the direct effect of family control on performance in different geographical regions. Second, the authors pay special attention to the choice of ownership structures by business families and analyse how family owners influence strategic decisions faced by their corporations, including the succession process. Finally, the authors explore the interaction of family control with other governance devices to gain a better understanding of family firms' corporate decision‐making and performance. The holistic approach highlights the need to contemplate the multiple relations that exist among the various governance dimensions of family firms to explain their unique performance. In addition to enhancing understanding of family business conduct, the authors emphasize the need to go beyond the borders of the family firm to identify its external antecedents and consequences. By integrating the finance and management perspectives and analysing the theoretical frameworks and methodologies used in these disciplines, the review highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to advance family business research and thus to consolidate it as a distinctive academic field.