Family firms constitute more than 80% of businesses and employ 60% of the workforce worldwide. This book presents valuable insights about how these firms operate and how their employees feel. It explores HR management issues, family integration as a source of competitive advantage, the financial management practices of family firms. In addition to offering a comprehensive analysis of managerial issues in family businesses, it also provides state of the art findings about these challenges.

The literature on family business has developed significantly over the last years. However, efforts remain to summarize and systematize the main aspects that affect the behavior of this type of company. In this regard, the topic of strategic management has been developed. In this sense, it is especially important to recognize how the family decisively influences the behavior of the company and also to identify how the existence of the company affects family dynamics. Those who manage family businesses, whether family or not, must reconcile both perspectives (business and family) in the definition of strategic objectives, allowing sustainability and continuity in this type of organization. The Handbook of Research on the Strategic Management of Family Businesses provides emerging research that covers how strategic management in the family business has been developed and identifies the objectives that sustain this strategic behavior, the main areas of analysis (family and business), the definition of strategies, and their implementation. Also, the authors of this book review the different scenarios for family firms and propose strategies to tackle the challenges and seize the possibilities to grow in a competitive and dynamic environment. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as human capital, organizational leadership, and knowledge creation, this book is ideally designed for family firms, managers, advisors, consultants, policymakers, business professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, researchers, academicians, and students.

Generation to Generation will help managers understand the special dynamics & challenges that family businesses face as they move through their life cycles. It explains how to handle succession, & the role of non-family professionals.

ÔThis book provides a thorough review and compendium of important family business research. It should be in the personal library of every family business scholar and graduate student involved in this vital field of study.Õ Ð Michael A. Hitt, Texas A&M University, US ÔA systematic review of the field and an incredibly useful reference book for anyone involved in studying or teaching family business.Õ Ð Sara Carter OBE FRSE, Strathclyde Business School, UK ÔThis book offers a succinct but thorough overview of how our understanding of significant issues in family business has evolved through rigorous research. This annotated bibliography of the 215 top-cited family business studies provides the empirical evidence and the basis for insightful comments from the authors on topics which will benefit from further scholarly debate and research. The authors are to be congratulated for making accessible those research contributions which have the potential to make a meaningful difference to the practice of family business.Õ Ð Jill Thomas, The University of Adelaide Business School, Australia ÔI highly recommend the annoted bibliography by De Massis, Sharma, Chua, and Chrisman to experienced scholars as well as to incoming researchers. The authors selected carefully (and in a transparent manner) relevant papers and summarized them in a way that provides a helpful basis for future research. Well done!Õ Ð Sabine B. Rau, WHUÐOtto Beisheim School of Management, Germany ÔA welcome addition to the field of family business studies! Offers an update and thorough compendium of relevant research conducted within the last 15 years. A most useful reference for doctoral students, established scholars and thoughtful practitioners. Importantly, the first three chapters offer critical commentary and synthesis that go well beyond what one typically finds in an annotated bibliography. Overall, this book offers a solid foundation for moving the study of family business forward.Õ Ð Lloyd Steier, University of Alberta, Canada ÔIf I had been asked to suggest the currently most-needed editorial endeavor for advancing family business studies, I would have answered with no hesitation: an up-to-date annotated bibliography. The fieldÕs growth over the past 15 years has been so intense, that even experts who devote most of their research efforts to family business Ð not to mention younger scholars approaching the field Ð will significantly benefit from De Massis, Sharma, Chua, and ChrismanÕs indispensable work.Õ Ð Carlo Salvato, Bocconi University, Italy and Associate Editor, Family Business Review This book catalogues the 215 most-cited empirical, theoretical, and practical articles on family business published in 33 journals since 1996. Researchers, students, and practicing managers will find it indispensable as a quick reference and guide to what we have learned about family firms. Annotations for the articles consist of: summary of key findings, research questions, contributions, and research implications. They also include a detailed description of the methodologies, empirical data, definitions, and conceptual models used. In addition, the book features chapters that review the literature, discuss how family businesses have been defined, present recent trends in family business empirical research, and provide an agenda for future research. Scholars, researchers and PhD students in the fields of family business, entrepreneurship, organization theory, management, economics, finance, anthropology, sociology and business history will find this compendium insightful. The topics covered in the book will also prove to be essential to practitioners Ð both advisors and operators of family enterprises Ð as it will provide evidence-based knowledge on the issues and dilemmas faced by them in everyday life.

Studies on culture, change and social processes within organizations have been historically organized around orthogonal approaches. While the literature on change has focused on creating pragmatic, generally simple methodologies that bypass the complexity of the data in order to emphasize the possibility of intervention, literature aimed at truly understanding of the firm and its processes has emphasized the ambiguity of organization and the difficulties involved in reaching a unitary view of its processes, let alone creating a single theory of change. Finally, the literature on family businesses has been restricted to limited views of the field, disregarding the rich insights brought by psychology, sociology or anthropology. The result of these trends has been a gap in the creation of knowledge, with a paucity of studies that link theory with practice and ground change on a comprehensive view of the social reality of the firm. This book addresses both the specific need of family businesses and the broader demands of any organization in which the issue of culture is seriously considered. Drawing on the notions and scholarship on organizations and sociology, the author proposes new concepts and tools for the change agents interested in working with the instrumental rules of the firm with the cohesive tone of the family. Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management will be of value to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to management and organizational studies and will be of interest to organizational scholars, consultants and leaders interested in fostering a meaningful culture within organizations and family businesses.

The SAGE Handbook of Family Business captures the conceptual map and state-of-the-art thinking on family business - an area experiencing rapid global growth in research and education since the last three decades. Edited by the leading figures in family business studies, with contributions and editorial board support from the most prominent scholars in the field, this Handbook reflects on the development and current status of family enterprise research in terms of applied theories, methods, topics investigated, and perspectives on the field′s future. The SAGE Handbook of Family Business is divided into following six sections, allowing for ease of navigation while gaining a multi-dimensional perspective and understanding of the field. Part I: Theoretical perspectives in family business studies Part II: Major issues in family business studies Part III: Entrepreneurial and managerial aspects in family business studies Part IV: Behavioral and organizational aspects in family business studies Part V: Methods in use in family business studies Part VI: The future of the field of family business studies By including critical reflections and presenting possible alternative perspectives and theories, this Handbook contributes to the framing of future research on family enterprises around the world. It is an invaluable resource for current and future scholars interested in understanding the unique dynamics of family enterprises under the rubric of entrepreneurship, strategic management, organization theory, accounting, marketing or other related areas.

Human resource management (HRM) systems are an under-researched area in family business studies even though they arguably play an important role. To exploit their entrepreneurial orientation and achieve their goals, family firms must be willing to adopt a specific configuration of the organizational variables to succeed in the competitive environment of today. Designing and Implementing HR Management Systems in Family Businesses is a pivotal reference source that focuses on HRM in family businesses aiming at clarifying what HRM topics are relevant in family firms given their distinctive features, what the role of HR choices in family firms is, and how they differ in these organizations. While highlighting topics such as quality of work, generational workforce, and leadership management, this publication explores the relationship between HRM systems and the organization as well as why certain theories would be more dominant for family firms. This book is ideally designed for family businesses, managers, executives, entrepreneurs, business professionals, academicians, students, and researchers.