Farming as it is practised in market industrialized countries is predominantly a family business. This book argues that the nature of the farm business cannot be properly understood without reference to the family that operates it. Examples are taken from the UK, USA, Europe and Australasia.

The United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Although many forms of production were once family-based, agriculture is now one of the few that are still dominated by families. Because family farms are so prevalent, making them more productive could help combat poverty and hunger in many rural areas around the world. Family farms are mostly small in scale, but they are highly diverse in other ways, and their pathways out of poverty will vary. The feature article in this issue of Insights looks at the prospects for supporting family farmers and, in some cases, encouraging workers to move off of farms in favor of other opportunities.

This book makes an important contribution to the understanding of small firms by bringing together a number of key themes in management/organization studies.

•The editors should be commended for developing a Map of the Landscape of Family Business Outcomes. It gives future research direction to the discipline considering both short-term profitability and long-term sustainability. It considers conventional c

Why do successors decide to join the family business? The current study investigated the hitherto largely ignored perspective of the successor on succession as career decision process. Grounded on family business and career development theory, insights gained from the qualitative analysis of 16 in-depth interviews with successors were used to develop a successor profiling tool. It is composed of three main elements: the succession decision as process, influences of facilitating and inhibiting factors as well as underlying successor commitment over time. A gender sensitive perspective was adopted in order to account for gender differences during tool development. The tool developed offers a practical contribution by helping young family business members to consider succession in relation to their career development.

. . . this Handbook is a good example . . . for those interested in giving a more articulated and solid flavour to their research. Andrea Colli, Business History The authors have taken a lot of pain in putting this Handbook together. As the name indicates, this is an excellent Handbook for researchers. Global Business Review The Handbook of Research on Family Business has collected and synthesized a broad variety of topics by notable researchers who share a common dedication to family business research. This Handbook provides a comprehensive treatment that advances the frontiers of knowledge in family business, provoking valuable thoughts and discussion. The Handbook serves as both an authoritative and comprehensive reference work for researchers investigating family enterprises. A. Bakr Ibrahim, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada Although family business research is a young discipline it is both necessary and important. For the wellbeing and future development of our society the survival of prosperous and passionate family business entrepreneurs is indispensable. In order to help the families in business to better understand how to succeed with their enterprises we need qualified and updated research. This book is the answer! Hans-Jacob Bonnier, Bonnier Business Press Group, Sweden and 6th Generation Chairman of the Family Business Network International This Handbook is a unique compilation of the most important and the best recent family business research. The field has grown so rapidly that this effort will be a mark for the research to follow. The Handbook of Research on Family Business will be the reference for scholars in family business for many years to come. It will also stimulate new ideas in research. John L. Ward, IMD, Switzerland and Northwestern University, US The Handbook of Research on Family Business provides a comprehensive first port of call for those wishing to survey progress in the theory and practice of family business research. In response to the extensive growth of family business as a topic of academic inquiry, the principal objective of the Handbook is to provide an authoritative and scholarly overview of current thinking in this multidisciplinary field. The contributors examine recent advances in the study of family business, which has undertaken significant strides in terms of theory building, empirical rigour, development of sophisticated survey instruments, systematic measurement of family business activity, use of alternative research methodologies and deployment of robust tools of analysis. A wide selection of empirical studies addressing the current family business research agenda are presented, and issues and topics explored include: validation of the protagonist role that family firms play in social-economic spheres; operational and definitional issues surrounding what constitutes a family business; historical development of the field of family business; methodologies encompassing micro and macro perspectives; challenges to the orthodox microeconomic view of homo-economicus firms by highlighting the virtues of family influence and social capital. Comprising contributions from leading researchers credited with shaping the family business agenda, this Handbook will prove an invaluable reference tool for students, researchers, academics and practitioners involved with the family business arena.