Family business

Family business is an interdisciplinary field devoted to study the structural and transitional problems of family firms. Family firms can be defined as companies of various sizes controlled by one or more owners tied by family relationship or solid alliances. The recent important theoretical and empirical developments have crystallized a double-edged vision of the family firm, which includes both the positives and the negatives of family control descending. Future studies should propose research designs that take into account the need to go beyond simple – although powerful – variables such as family ownership and leadership. As in most of the managerial fields, the simultaneous search for rigor and relevance should dominate the scholarly agenda over the next few years.