Abstract
One of the fields in management throughout the world that has evolved the most during the past decades is family business. This is reflected in the number of literature reviews published in journals or books assessing achievements, progress and future trends in the field (e.g. De Massis, Sharma, Chua, Chrisman, 2012; Nordqvist and Melin, 2010), articles discussing methodological issues (e.g. Chrisman, Chua and Sharma, 2005; Nordqvist, Hall and Melin, 2009), conceptual paradigms (e.g. Gedajlovic, Carney, Chrisman and Kellermanns, 2012), or interrelationships among relevant family business scholars (e.g., Debicki, Matherne III, Kellermanns and Chrisman, 2009).
In Europe, the number of family business researchers at universities and research centres has been increasing steadily over the 1990s and 2000s. This growth reflects the growing interest of European governments in family businesses themes such as succession and ownership transitions. Where family business had strong roots in management research, as for example in Nordic countries and the UK, research communities emerged early on, while in other countries such as Italy, France and Germany, the field only took off in the last decade.
In light of this increasing interest in family business, what has been the output and direction of research in the field of family business in the European context? The purpose of this thematic issue is to provide an answer to this question by presenting research on various family business topics in Europe and illustrating the broadness, diversity and growth potential of European family business research. By doing this, this issue adds to previous efforts that have largely investigated the specific domain of family business from a US perspective, and encourages a dialogue and understanding between European and US scholars in the field.
The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2013 Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC 2013), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.