Family Business Review Research Articles

Bibliometric analysis of studies on family firms

Several authors have highlighted the importance of family firms in the worldwide generation of wealth, wellbeing, and employment. Recently, the importance of family firms has resulted in the proliferation of many academic works in prestigious journals. Hence, studying their development and evolution is deemed necessary. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of the literature on family firms to show the research trends and guide researchers in their work; it is conducted using a detailed and systematic study of the scientific production of papers on family firms published in the Web of Science (WoS) between 1975 and May 2020. Its contributions are as follows. First, it consolidates family firms as an area of research, which reflects on several papers focusing on this topic (1990 papers published in the WoS database, 55982 total citations). Second, it finds that family firm research has mainly developed in the last few years. Third, it discovers that Kellermanns and Chrisman are the most relevant authors in this field. Fourth, it suggests that the most influential journal is Family Business Review. Fifth, it finds that that the Mississippi State University is the most renowned family firm research institution. Sixth, it discovers that the United States has the highest production in the field. Finally, the bibliometric map identifies four clusters, the most relevant being the family firm theory and its evolution.

A New Era for EJFB

A New Era for EJFB

The Psychological Foundations of Management in Family Firms: Emotions, Memories, and Experiences

Exploring the psychological foundations of management in family firms is necessary to understand why they formulate and implement strategies differently from nonfamily firms, and why and how family firm behavior varies across different family firms. Picone et al. (2021. The psychological foundations of management in family firms: Values, biases, and heuristics. Family Business Review, 34(1), 12-32) have proposed a conceptual framework for the psychological foundations of management in family business, examining how the values, biases, and heuristics of family firm members affect strategic decision-making and family firm outcomes. Drawing on this framework, we examine emotions, memories, and experiences in family firms, disentangling “what we know” from “what we should know”, and offering some relevant questions to advance the field.

Thirty years of research in family business journals: Status quo and future directions

Family firms are the most ubiquitous form of business organization in any world economy. Family Business Review, Journal of Family Business Strategy, and Journal of Family Business Management are the three leading academic journals exclusively dedicated to this type of firms. Since the inception of the first of the three journals in 1988, these outlets published 1381 articles dealing with family business. This study offers a comprehensive bibliometric overview of these contributions, thereby providing a complete overview of family business research conducted in the three dedicated journals in this field, and laying the ground for future developments. We do not limit our effort to describe the field from a bibliometric perspective, but furthermore unearth the most debated topics, link thematically the aspects emerging from our review, and offer promising avenues for future research.

Profesionalización en la empresa familiar: evolución y líneas de investigación

Introducción: Las empresas familiares (EF), aportan significativamente a la economía y a la sociedad en muchos países. El estudio de la profesionalización de estas empresas resulta relevante, toda vez que permite alcanzar una gestión eficiente dentro de la organización y para aumentar ganancias. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo describir y analizar la evolución cuantitativa de la producción científica de la profesionalización en la EF familiar desde 1980 a 2019, lo cual, permite identificar aspectos claves como son el autor más citado, la revista de mayor impacto, la institución líder, a fin de analizar las principales características del tema y perfilar futuras líneas de investigación.Método: Los datos se obtuvieron de los artículos recuperados del portal Web of Science, de Clarivate Analytics y se llevó a cabo un método bibliométrico y análisis de contenido.Resultados: La búsqueda produjo 112 artículos, con picos de producción en 2013 y 2018. Se analizan las redes de coocurrencia, citación y coautoría. La revista “Family Business Review” es la de mayor publicación de artículos; no obstante, el “Journal of Finance” y “Quarterly Journal of Economics” tienen un factor de impacto mayor. Anderson y Reeb son los autores más citados. Estados Unidos concentran la mayor producción científica y la participación de América Latina y, en específico México, es casi nula.Discusión y Conclusión: El tema de profesionalización comenzó a ser estudiado como un factor implícito y de soporte para el crecimiento de la empresa familiar. En los últimos nueve años, aumentaron las publicaciones sobre la profesionalización ya que incide en la obtención de ganancias económicas, además, está en la base de la sucesión e institucionalización de la organización e interviene en la continuidad de la empresa y la armonía familiar. La mayoría de las investigaciones se enfocan en evaluar los resultados financieros comparando entre un CEO familiar o uno externo. Sin embargo, falta profundizar en el estudio de cómo realizar la planeación, ejecución y evaluación de la profesionalización. Las diferencias en la gestión aplicable a empresas familiares grandes, las microempresas, pequeños emprendimientos, y sus componentes culturales, son temas amplios que requieren más investigación. A nivel internacional sigue en debate el perfil de la persona para manejar eficientemente la EF, lo cual abre la oportunidad para investigar estos temas en el contexto mexicano.

Call for Papers for the 2023 Family Business Review (FBR) Special Issue on History-informed Family Business Research

Call for Papers for the 2023 Family Business Review (FBR) Special Issue on History-informed Family Business Research

Communication Climate as Predictor of Perceived Corporate Governance and Organizational Success

Communication Climate as Predictor of Perceived Corporate Governance and Organizational Success

Family Business Review in 2020: Focus on the Family

<i>Family Business Review</i> in 2020: Focus on the Family

Truckin’ on at Family Business Review

Truckin’ on at <i>Family Business Review</i>

Professionalisation of the Family Firm and Its Relationship with Personal Values

This study aims to determine the relationships between personal values (PVs) and the professionalisation of family firms. To achieve this objective, the theoretical model of PVs by Schwartz ( Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 25:1–65, 1992; Journal of Social Issues 50:19–45, 1994) and the multidimensional model of professionalisation by Dekker, Lybaert, Steijvers and Depaire ( Family Business Review 26(1): 81–99, 2013; Journal of Small Business Management 53(2): 516–538, 2015) were used, highlighting the inclusion of three more factors found in the literature and which became part of the extended model. As the data-collecting instrument, an online questionnaire was sent to Portuguese family firms, obtaining a final sample of 249 participants. To determine the relationships, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used, specifically Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), initially seeking to validate the constructs (PVs and professionalisation) by adjusting the general model. Then, the structural model was validated, determining the relationships between the variables of the constructs studied. The results demonstrated acceptance of the model and partial and total validation of most of the hypotheses investigated, showing that PVs are related to professionalisation of family firms. Some implications for theory and practice will also be presented.

Bibliometric analysis of entrepreneurial orientation

PurposeThe remarkable concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has attracted scholars’ attention for its relevance to a firm’s performance. Based on bibliometric and distance-based visualization of similarities (VOS) analysis, the purpose of this paper is to outline a broad-spectrum perspective of the structure of research in EO across more than 20 years of publications, identifying the most prominent journals, authors and articles in this field.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the Web of Science Core Collection and the VOS viewer software. The analysis searches for all the documents connected to EO available in the database from 1976 to 2017. The graphical visualization maps the bibliographic data using both bibliographic coupling and co-citation data.FindingsEntrepreneurship Theory and Practice Journal, Journal of Business Venturing and Family Business Review are the most relevant journals in the field. Among the many important authors in the EO literature, key contributors are Lumpkin, Payne, Short, Covin, Dess and Wiklund. Three different streams of research are linked to the EO concept; strategy and entrepreneurship, family business and miscellaneous work in psychometrics, methods, marketing and knowledge/capability-based approaches to organizations.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to EO research by providing a global perspective on the concept’s investigation, using bibliometric data and graphical networks.

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.

Looking Back at and Forward From: “Family Governance and Firm Performance: Agency, Stewardship, and Capabilities”

Looking back on a Family Business Review article we published in 2006, we discuss its origins, publication challenges, apparent influence, and how we might build on it today. Much of this reflection proposes how we may gain further insights into agency, stewardship, and resource perspectives by addressing promising underexplored areas relating to family enterprise. In the process we suggest topics that we hope may advance conceptualization about family firms by addressing relevant social and economic issues.

Process and Variance Modeling

Models are an important component of research design that serve as intermediaries between theories and data, often directing decisions about methods and statistics. This article discusses the basic differences and assumptions associated with process and variance models as a way of introducing the four articles contained within this special issue of Family Business Review on “Process and Variance Methods.” Specifically, we highlight three key issues regarding modeling—time and causality, measurement and operationalization, and model specification—making specific ties to the challenges often associated with family business research.

The construction of qualitative research articles: a conversation with Eileen Fischer

ABSTRACTEileen Fischer, Professor of Marketing and Anne & Max Tanenbaum Chair in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at the Schulich School of Business at York University, has published research on entrepreneurs, consumers, and markets in several leading management and marketing journals. Professor Fischer has served on the editorial review boards of Consumption Markets & Culture; Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice; Family Business Review; Journal of Business Venturing; and Journal of Small Business Management and is a current co-editor of the Journal of Consumer Research. In preparation for this conversation, the interviewers invited questions about the construction of qualitative research articles from multiple junior scholars in the field of consumer culture theory (CCT). This invitation yielded dozens of questions that were whittled down to the final questions you see here.

Corrigendum

Brigham, K. H., Lumpkin, G. T., Payne, G. T., &amp; Zachary, M. A. (2014). Researching long-term orientation: A validation study and recommendations for future research. Family Business Review, 27(1): 72-88. The authors have provided the following clarifications to correct issues in the developed measure and report relevant changes. Specifically, two errors were observed by the authors. First, several words were included in more than one of the developed word lists, which violated the intentions of the authors to keep each word list mutually exclusive. Second, in re-analyzing the data with the corrected word lists, an error in the original content analysis was discovered. A common error in the DICTION 5.0 software limited the analysis of the corpus of documents. In response, the authors re-analyzed the data using an updated version of the software (i.e., DICTION 7.0). Below are corrections to the paper subsequent to these errors.

Examining HRM Activities in Family Business Research: A Critical Review

Although the intent of introducing the Family Business Review, a journal devoted to family business, in 1988 was to disseminate knowledge and research “among the members of a variety of disciplines...

Essay on Practice: Advising Family Enterprise in the Fourth Decade

Researchers and advisors in the field of family business have focused on a sequence of topics over the 30 years since the first dedicated conferences and the emergence of Family Firm Institute, Inc. (FFI) and family business review. This essay reviews the issues that have received the most attention from family business advisors across this time period (succession, governance, and intergenerational family dynamics). Then the author proposes a particular focus for intervention in the coming decade—family human capital utilization—and discusses four areas of consultation that may be increasingly valuable to client families.

Corrigenda

Perry, J. T., Ring, J. K., &amp; Broberg, J. C. (2015). Which type of advisors do family businesses trust most? An exploratory application of socioemotional selectivity theory. Family Business Review, 28(3), 211-226. Original DOI: 10.1177/0894486514538652 .

Empirics in Family Business Research

Competent research methods and data analysis are essential components for the progression of family business research. To identify and evaluate empirical trends, and make suggestions for future research, we examine 319 empirical articles published in Family Business Review since 1988. These studies are compared with 146 family business research articles published in top-tier journals not dedicated to family business research over the same timeframe. While we substantiate growth in rigor and sophistication, we address specific family business research challenges regarding construct validity, generalizability, causality, temporality, and multilevel issues. Suggestions are provided for future empirical research across six major topical areas.