Family Business Research: A Literature Review

Abstract

Family businesses are an important pillar of the global economy because these entities not only contribute towards GDP but also hire a substantial number of employees. This study contributes to family business research and analyzes its underlying theories. A systematic literature review based on the Web of Science (WoS) database of family business research publications has been conducted to support this study. The subsequent bibliometric and scientometric analysis identifies the main theories and concepts of family business research in terms of their relevance to researchers. One of the main findings, based on 5,013 identified documents, proclaims that the Socioemotional Wealth theory is the most considered theory in the past 10 years and it has been gaining significant prominence in the past 5 years. Based on citations, the most influential authors are: Chrisman, J. J., USA and Kellermann, F. W., Germany with more than 70 publications each and an average of 86.7 citations per publication. As a country, the United States contributes the most to family business research with 27% of publications and as a continent, Europe contributes the most with 48%. However, majority of publications are published by a single author or with a co-author and 18% of the authors have published more than 50% of the publications.