Qualitative research interviewing in family firms

Qualitative research has been widely used as the main approach to building theory in the family business field. Although qualitative researchers use a wide spectrum of data sources including secondary and archival data, interviews are by far the most widely adopted source of information in qualitative studies. In this chapter, we offer guidelines to perform qualitative interviewing in family business settings. Many of the suggestions illustrated in the chapter apply to qualitative research interviewing in any nonfamily empirical setting and they are aligned with established literature in qualitative methods. However, interviewing informants (both family and nonfamily members) within a family business setting involves unique challenges and opportunities due to the overlap of family and business logics and dynamics, which affects all dimensions of the business organization. The main challenges result from the risk that informants will not disclose the subtle family-related facts and dynamics that may explain a significant part of the investigated phenomena. Correspondingly, the main opportunities result from the possible emergence of interesting, counter-intuitive, and often surprising phenomena that have the potential to illuminate and expand existing knowledge on the object of the study. This chapter offers some guidance on how to design and implement effective qualitative interviews in family-controlled firms.