This new major work answers the growing global need for a resource that captures and presents a comprehensive overview of the literature in the field of family business. The last three decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in research on family businesses, as institutions have increasingly recognized that family businesses represent the most common form of business organization and a large part of the GDP in most countries. Scholars in the field have started to address critical questions such as:
· Why do family firms deserve special research attention?
· Are family firms really different from other business organizations? If so, how? And, so what?
· Is there a shared definition of family firms? And, of family in business?
· Are behavioral and governance issues that need attention in family enterprises any different from other firms?
This four-volume work addresses these key concerns and provides a rich picture of what we know about family businesses and enterprising families, as well as including critical reflections on major areas and contributions.
Volume One: Scope, Boundaries and Impact of Family Business
Volume Two: The Business Family
Volume Three: The Family Business
Volume Four: Governance and Behavioural Issues in Family Business
PramoDITA Sharma is a Professor and the Schlesinger-Grossman Chair of Family Business at the Grossman School of Business (GSB) at the University of Vermont and a visiting scholar at family enterprise centers at the Indian School of Business and the Kellogg School of Management. Dita teaches entrepreneurial family business courses in-person and on-line at all levels of education. Her research focused on trans-generational entrepreneurship and continuity, sustainability and governance of family enterprises, has appeared in over fifty scholarly articles and eleven books including the SAGE Handbook of Family Business, Entrepreneurs in Every Generation, Patient Capital: The Role of Family Firms in Sustainable Business, and the 2021 release Pioneering Family Firms’ Sustainable Development Strategies. Her teaching cases have appeared in the Case Research Journal and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. Sharma is the past editor of SAGE published top ranked Family Business Review and a frequent speaker at gatherings of family business leaders. She serves as a trusted advisor to multi-generational family enterprises around the world.
Leif Melin, PhD, is Professor of Strategy and Organisation and the Hamrin Professor of Family Business Strategy at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS). He is the founding and past Director of Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership (CeFEO). He has served as Dean and Managing Director for JIBS. He was a founding researcher of the STEP project ( Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices) and has served as member for the Global STEP Project Board. In 2012, he was honored with the International award at the 26th anniversary conference of the Family Firm Institute, and he was also selected as a Family Owned Business Institute Scholar. He is the founder and annual co-chair of the EIASM Family Firm Research Workshop. He has published in international journals and book volumes, including Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Organization, Long Range Planning and Family Business Review. He serves on the editorial board of several international journals.
