Governance in family firms can profoundly influence corporate behavior and performance. Recently, family firm governance (FFG) has attracted extensive attention as increasing empirical research has been published. However, few studies have attempted to map the global research on this growing...

This book explores the relationship between families, firms, and regions and the extent to which these relationships contribute to regional economic and social development. Although family business participation in economic activities has been a common phenomenon since pre-industrial societies,...

In Europe, a huge share of firms is family owned. Since family firms are known to be more risk averse concerning international transactions, an interesting question emerges: Do family firms adopt a different international sourcing pattern. Altering the Gloubal Sourcing model of Antràs and...

Family firms are known for their reluctance to invest in research and development. We show that strengthened trade secret protection is associated with higher R&D investment by family firms. More specifically, we show that the association between the strength of trade secret protection through...

Various articles suggest that particular ethical problems occur in family firms, but until now, no attempt has been made to collect and structure available information on them. Based on the systematic review of 110 articles from peer-reviewed academic journals, we show that family firms face a...

This study explores the consequences of the Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Directive (CSRD) on family firms. The European Commission (EC) extends under the CSRD the number of reporting companies from approximately 12,000 to 50,000, with the greatest increase in Germany. For 2025,...

Our aim is to empirically examine how reasons for using private equity (PE) and prior experience with PE affect the willingness of privately held firms to cede company control. Based on a questionnaire entailing 75 privately held firms backed by PE, we show that family firms cede less control...

Family business scholars assume that family business goals represent the nature of the firm's decision making and are driving forces (i.e., antecedents) of family firm behavior, performance, continuity, competitiveness, and sustainability. Without measuring family business goals, family business...

Family firms are the most prevalent form of economic organization in the world, but despite their reputation for resilience and agility, many of them are facing enormous challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this essay, we examine how the pressures to respond to this health emergency are...