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 (2024-2025):
SIG Programme Chair, Prof. Dr. Allan Discua Cruz, Lancaster University, a.discuacruz@lancaster.ac.uk
SIG Programme Chair-Elect, Prof. Dr. Rafaela Gjergji, LIUC, gjergji@liuc.it
SIG Communications Officer, Sandra Fiedler, Chemnitz University of Technology, sandra.fiedler@wiwi.tu-chemnitz.de
FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH SIG STANDING TRACKS
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. Driven by unique goals that interact at multiple levels, they continue to stimulate research which is progressing in terms of theory building. However, the systematic adoption of comprehensive and theoretically grounded frameworks that effectively capture the peculiarities of family businesses is still lacking. To advance our field, we welcome papers investigating one or several dimensions of family businesses, with multi-theoretical and multi-level approaches, and cross-cultural research. We are particularly interested in contributing to advancing “Family Business Research” as an independent field for family businesses with studies that offer rigor to Academia and relevance to owner-managers, practitioners, policymakers, and local communities.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
Goal 4: Quality education; 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
Primary Contact
Rafaela Gjergji – rgjergji@liuc.it
ST04_01 – Behavior, Performance, and Sustainability in Family Firms
The Track “Behavior, Performance, and Sustainability in Family Firms” sheds light on family firms’ behaviors, traits and structures that influence the adoption of sustainable practices and, in turn, financial, social and environmental performance. Given the digital transformation process, the Track also examines the role of digitalization in boosting family firms sustainability. Consistently with EURAM 2025 theme “Managing with purpose”, the Track welcomes theoretical and empirical, quantitative and qualitative papers that shed light on family firms behaviors, traits and structures that affect financial, social and environmental practices and performance in family firms.
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
Primary Contact
Mario Ossorio – mario.ossorio@unicampania.it
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 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
Primary Contact
Allan Discua Cruz – a.discuacruz@lancaster.ac.uk
FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH SIG TRACKS
T04_03 – Navigating the Twin Transition: The Role of Small and Family Businesses in Digital and Green Transformations
This call – sponsored by SIMA (Italian Society of Management) Interest Group on Small and Family Business – invites researchers to explore the digital and green transformations of small and family businesses. The focus is on assessing digital maturity, environmental sustainability, the strategic approaches of small and family organizations. Key themes include evaluating resource constraints, analyzing whether digitalization and sustainability are competing or complementary, financial, governance, and managerial characteristics unique to family firms in a twin transition. The potential concurrent pursuit of digitalization and environmental sustainability goals might be facilitated within entrepreneurial ecosystems. Empirical, theoretical, and methodological papers are welcome.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities; Goal 13: Climate action
Primary Contact:
Elisa Conz, University of Pavia – elisa.conz@unipv.it