The European Academy of Management with an ad-hoc Strategic Interest Group on “Family Business Research” aims to be the ideal opportunity to assess the conceptual development, empirical research, and future directions of the family business field within a broader community of European scholars of management. We envision this SIG as an international arena to attract contributions of both new scholars of the field and scholars from the established community in family business, that will provide new insights on topics that have received significant attention in the past, as well as we especially encourage scholars to undertake innovative papers and discussions of topics that have not received much attention but are important in the field.
SIG OFFICERS (2022-2023):
SIG Chair, Elias Hadjielias (Cyprus University of Technology) elias.hadjielias@cut.ac.cy
SIG Programme Chair, Jan-Philipp Ahrens (University of Mannheim), jahrens@staff.mail.uni-mannheim.de
SIG Programme Chair-Elect and Communications officer, Elena Casprini (University of Siena) elena.casprini@unisi.it
GT04_00 – Family Business Research General Track
Family-owned firms are one of the foundations of the world’s business community. Their creation, growth and longevity are critical to the success of the global economy. Although family business research is progressing in terms of theory building, it still lacks a systematic adoption of thorough and theoretically-based frameworks. To advance our field, we welcome papers investigating one or several dimensions of family businesses, with multi-theoretical and multi-level approach, and cross-cultural research. We are particularly interested in advancing “Family Business” as an autonomous Research Field with contributions that offer rigor to the Academia and relevance to owner-managers, practitioners and local communities.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production
Elias Hadjielias , Cyprus University of Technology, elias.hadjielias@cut.ac.cy
FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH SIG STANDING TRACKS
ST04_01 – Strategy, Innovation, Digitalization, Internationalization and Sustainability in Family Firms
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 4: Quality education
Rafaela Gjergji , Università Cattaneo – Liuc, rgjergji@liuc.it
Honorary supporters: Elena Casprini, University of Siena; Valentina Lazzarotti, Università Cattaneo – Liuc; Reinhard Prügl, Zeppelin University; Josip Kotlar, Politecnico di Milano – School of Management.
ST04_02 – Family Business in Emerging, Developing, and Transitional Economies
The “Family business in emerging, developing and transition economies” track aims to contribute to conversations in the family business research field in three ways. First, by encouraging researchers to borrow and replicate research strategies, we expect to foster the generalization of results and test mainstream theories and approaches across contexts. Second, by encouraging researchers to borrow and extend research strategies, we call for scholars to incorporate the specificities of the environment-family relationship to contextualize the family business phenomenon. Finally, by fostering the development of new research designs to build theory around the influence of context on family business and business.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 13: Climate action, Goal 15: Life on land, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Allan Discua Cruz , Lancaster University Management School, a.discuacruz@lancaster.ac.uk
FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH SIG TRACKS
T04_03 – Unveiling the “organizational familiness” of micro and small enterprises: going beyond family bonds
The track nurtures the debate on the conceptualization of familiness in the management debate, contextualizing it to micro and small-sized enterprises. Proposing a view of familiness which is alternative to its understanding as an idiosyncratic bundle of resources of family firms, a contingent perspective is embraced. Organizational familiness arises from the richness of interpersonal exchanges that micro and small-sized enterprises enact in their organizational environment. We call attention to how the organizational context mimic the dynamics that are proper of family settings. The track attempts to illuminate the management features of organizational familiness and examine its implications on organizational success.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Rocco Palumbo, University Rome “Tor Vergata” – rocco.palumbo@uniroma2.it
T04_04 – Human Resource Management in Family Firms. Taking stock and moving forward
Human resource management (HRM) is critically important for family business research and practice. However, despite increasing attention, the family business domain still has significant way to go, both in exploring and deepening a wider variety of HR topics and in generating actionable theory. A lively debate is emerging on whether this interweaving makes family firms better or worse employers compared to non-family firms and on the features that among family firms differentiate ‘good’ and ‘bad’ models of HRM practices and systems. The research work on this debate is still evolving, and there are many opportunities for family business scholars to advance knowledge.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
Daniel Pittino, JIBS – Daniel.Pittino@ju.se
T04_05 – Performance, Goals, & Behavior in Family Firms – Focus 2023: Innovation and Sustainability
Since the beginning of Covid-19 emergency, family firms stood out for their responsiveness in fighting pandemic, in many cases showing unique innovativeness and responsibility for community (Le-Breton-Miller & Miller, 2022). Given that the key factor that distinguishes family firms from others is the family’s involvement in ownership, board and management of their firms along with their willingness to transfer family control to the future generations (Chua et al., 1999; Daspit et al., 2018), the relationships between family firm’s corporate governance, innovation strategies, and performance (social and financial) deserve to be further investigated.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 1: No poverty, Goal 2: Zero hunger, Goal 3: Good health and well-being for people, Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production, Goal 13: Climate action, Goal 14: Life below water, Goal 15: Life on land, Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Mario Ossorio, Università degli Studi della Campania – mario.ossorio@unicampania.it