Issues relating to private family firm diversity and development are discussed with reference to established and emerging debates. Family firm assets and liabilities are highlighted. Key issues for family firms research and practice relating to family firm definition and family firm diversity are raised. Issues relating to context, culture and time are also discussed. Conceptual and empirical ‘types’ of family firms are illustrated. The contributions of ‘invisible’ members, women and couples in family firms are discussed. Various ownership forms relating to the perpetuation of family firms and business ownership transfer issues are highlighted. Articles in this special issue are then briefly summarized.

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Narrative is recognized as a credible source of knowledge for scholars engaged in theory building in entrepreneurship. A wide range of methods for the analysis of narrative empirical material have been adopted in research to date. Thus, researchers have a multitude of ways to engage with data, such that investigators new to narrative analysis may face challenges in approaching and framing analyses of their narrative material. This article presents exemplars from two researchers who used structural approaches to uncover contemporary understandings of entrepreneurship in different contexts. Their experiences suggest a framework that scholars embarking on journeys into narrative analysis can use to their benefit.

Continuity is about connection and cohesion over time. A defining question in the study of family business is how the family and the business can endure and survive across generations. Learning about continuity is fundamental in addressing that question. This study explores how family business members learn about continuity. It draws on concepts of communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation derived from Lave and Wenger's (1991) situated learning perspective. These are used as theoretical lenses to explore the relationship between family members and learning through an interpretive and inductive study of 18 respondents from family businesses in Canada. This study shows learning in the family business context is about continuity, but the process of learning in which the family engages is uneven, non-linear, and unpredictable. To deal with these complexities and learn about continuity, family members participate in multiple ways, often gradually over time. In this study gradual participation to build legitimacy is revealed as a multi-generational learning phenomenon. It involves multiple forms of co-participation influenced by family members from the past, present and future.