The European Academy of Management with an ad-hoc Strategic Interest Group on “Family Business Research” aims to be the ideal opportunity to assess the conceptual development, empirical research, and future directions of the family business field within a broader community of European scholars of management. We envision this SIG as an international arena to attract contributions of both new scholars of the field and scholars from the established community in family business, that will provide new insights on topics that have received significant attention in the past, as well as we especially encourage scholars to undertake innovative papers and discussions of topics that have not received much attention but are important in the field.
SIG Officers:
Reinhard Pruegl (Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Chair
Massimo Baù (Jönköping International Business School, Sweden) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Chair Elect
Claudia Astrachan-Binz (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Programme Chair
Anneleen Michiels (Hasselt University, Belgium) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SIG Programme Chair Elect
GT 04_00 Family Business Research General Track
Family-owned firms are one of the foundations of the world’s business community. Their creation, growth and longevity are critical to the success of the global economy. During the past decade, although family business research is progressing in terms of theory building, it still lacks a systematic adoption of thorough and theoretically-based frameworks. To advance our field we welcome papers investigating one or several dimensions of family businesses, with multi-theoretical and level approach (e.g. management, entrepreneurship, finance, psychology, sociology, etc.) and cross-cultural research. We are particularly interested in advancing “Family Business” as an autonomous Research Field with contributions, which offer rigor to the Academia and relevance to owner-managers, practitioners and local communities.
FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH SIG STANDING TRACK
ST 04_01 Family Business Governance
Family businesses are worldwide recognized as a unique form of organization. They inspire practitioners and academics to use multiple lenses to investigate the differences with their non-family counterparts. Corporate governance is an important lens. However, the variance among family firms might be even greater than the variance between family and non-family firms. This track aims to study the specific characteristics of governance that make family firms a heterogeneous group. Family council, family advisory, family and intergenerational involvement in upper echelon levels, succession dilemma, family leadership style, family endowment and firm behaviours are just few of the topics we want to discuss. We welcome submissions from a large variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.
FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH SIG 2017 TRACKS
T 04_02 Family Identity and Goal-setting: Exploring the Relationship with CSR
Family business researchers are increasingly interested in better understanding family firms’ behaviour as they relate to social performance and marketing. Specifically influenced by their family identity, values and goals are affected by non-financial motives and a strong desire to develop and maintain a positive corporate reputation. Therefore, family firms may behave differently than their non-family counterparts and there might also be differences among diverse family businesses, which may affect how stakeholders perceive them and their future intentions. This track explores how and when the family identity of a firm influences the behaviours of family firms who strategize on socially responsible, sustainable and branding initiatives.
T 04_04 Methods & Theories in Family Business Research - Special Focus 2017: Finance and Accounting in Family Business Research
This track is dedicated to rigorous and novel methodological approaches as well as theoretical advancements in the field of FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH. We invite all papers dedicated to the further DEVELOPMENT AND DIFFUSION OF METHODS (quantitative and qualitative) from related fields (e.g., financial economics, marketing, or organizational behavior). We further welcome work that merges, blends, or extends THEORETICAL LENSES to explain family business phenomena in a new or a more holistic (potentially unifying) framework. In 2017 we especially invite (but not limited to) papers at the intersection of finance and accounting in family business research.
T 04_05 Innovation, entrepreneurial behaviour, strategic renewal, corporate venturing and internationalization in family firms (Co-sponsored with the Entrepreneurship SIG-03)
This track aims to stimulate a scientific dialogue on entrepreneurial orientation and spirit in family businesses, and to attract contributions which investigate both theoretically and empirically the role of family influence, family business goals, and family dynamics on innovation, entrepreneurial behaviour, strategic renewal, corporate venturing and internationalization in family firms. In particular, we solicit authors to submit empirical, conceptual, and literature review contributions promising in understanding the above mentioned issues in family firm contexts. We welcome the adoption of diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, and submissions by interdisciplinary, international, and mixed industry-academic co-author teams.
T 04_06 Family Business in Developing, Emerging and Transitional Economies
The track is dedicated to investigating the context in which family businesses dwell in emerging, developing and transition economies - a promising but understudied area of research, as the vast majority of studies concentrate on developed countries. As a family’s (and firm’s) environmental context (i.e., cultural, demographic, economic, educational, legal, and social) can shape family firm formation, diversity, and development, this may limit our understanding of family businesses as the contexts in which they operate around the world are varied. We invite submissions that emphasize the importance of environment to enrich our understanding of the family business phenomenon, and papers that replicate studies in new contexts that would expand current knowledge.
