Purpose – Risk aversion is an important characteristic associated with family firms. Despite growing literature in recent years, a consistent picture of what we know about the risk aversion of family firms has not evolved. Thus, this paper presents a systematic overview of whether family firms...

Purpose – Risk aversion is an important characteristic associated with family firms. Despite growing literature in recent years, a consistent picture of what we know about the risk aversion of family firms has not evolved. Thus, this paper presents a systematic overview of whether family firms...

Purpose – This paper aims to shed light on the potential downsides of risk aversion in family firms. Moreover, it seeks to provide measures on how to balance risk taking and risk aversion in family businesses. Design/methodology/approach – The article first presents four “dark sides” of...