A volume in Research in Entrepreneurship and Management Series Editor
John E. Butler, University of Hawaii at Manoa Until recently, research
in family business has been confined to a sub-group of entrepreneurship
scholars, labor economists, and sociologists. Family business employment
is often the only economic option available to migrants, the first
entrepreneurial experience for young people, and a source of an
economy's new business creation activities. These issues are typically
framed in terms of the generational transfer of wealth, management
succession, or the interplay between the economic system of a family and
its sociopolitical system. The phenomenon is clearly widespread but for
some reason continues to be poorly understood. We believe that progress
on the empirical front has been hampered by a lack of accepted
theoretical frameworks. For example, attempts to employ agency theory,
geographic agglomeration and spill overs, social networks, sense making,
bargaining and other frameworks have been scattered. In our view, the
extant research has not created the theoretic ballast that can withstand
repeated empirical verification. More fundamentally, researchers are
beginning to ask, 'Is family business theoretically distinctive or a
convenient phenomenon for exploiting familiar theories with new data?'
We believe the time is ripe for a focused look at the theoretical
history and prospects of family business research. Review articles
grounded in economics, sociology, psychology and political economy and
that offer multidisciplinary implications are especially sought. Theory
based empirical papers are also welcomed. We believe that there are
exciting opportunities for theory development and so encourage authors
to focus on this in their submissions. In sum, the focus of this volume
is on showcasing and advancing the latest research in family business.
