Past, present and future of empirical research on employee-owned firms : a structured literature review over 1970–2019

Purpose: This paper reviews the evolution, current state and ongoing trends of the empirical literature on employee-owned firms (EOFs). Design/methodology/approach: Using a structured literature review methodology, I analyze 280 empirical publications on EOFs published in English peer-reviewed academic journals over the 1970–2019 period. Findings: Two generations (before and after 2001) of the EOF empirical literature are identified and characterized in terms of authors, journals, topics, methods, targets, relations to theoretical modeling and countries studied. Two research trends are structuring the current generation: one investigating diverse research questions engaging EOFs as emblematic forms of social economy, and the other comparing EOFs to conventional firms to offer insights mainly into the seminal question of the EOF relative rarity. Research limitations/implications: The sample studied does not take into account articles written in languages other than English and does not include books. Originality/value: This article displays the first structured literature review of the EOF empirical literature.