This indispensable Handbook provides a timely and comprehensive guide to the methodological challenges of qualitative research in family business. Written by an international, multidisciplinary team of experts in the field, the Handbook takes a hands-on approach, offering valuable insights into a range of methods and related questions. Providing practical guidance based on the experiences of senior researchers, as well as expanding conceptual understanding of qualitative methods, chapters explore existing practices and issues common to many research projects, such as getting access to informants and technical or publication hurdles. Featuring reflective discussion on how to craft insightful, rigorous studies, the Handbook will increase scholars' confidence in using qualitative methods in their own research, from traditional case studies to more recent methods such as QCA. This Handbook will prove invaluable to instructors of qualitative research methods, as well as scholars and students of family business and entrepreneurship. Researchers using qualitative methods in other social sciences will also find its recommendations relevant and useful. Contributors include: R. Adiguna, N. Bhatnagar, M. Brumana, A. Calabro, A. Colli, A. Dawson, A. De Massis, C. Dessi, A. Dettori, G. Dorian, K.D. Elsbach, P. Fernandez Perez, D. Fletcher, M. Floris, I. Ghai, W. Gibb Dyer, V.L. Glaser, F. Hoy, A.E. James, J.E. Jennings, N. Kammerlander, K. Kampouri, R. Labaki, G. Laffranchini, G. Lauto, T. Leppaaho, L. Melin, E. Micelotta, L.M. Nor, M. Nordqvist, E. Paavilainen-Mantymaki, M.J. Parada Balderrama, D. Pittino, E. Plakoyiannaki, C. Pongelli, K. Ramachandran, A. Ruzzene, A.G. Sandig, P. Sharma, E.A. Tetzlaff, J. van Helvert-Beugels, K. Vasilevska, F. Visintin, M. Waldkirch, M. Yusof

This book catalogs 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 - both advisors and operators of family enterprises - as it will provide evidence-based knowledge on the issues and dilemmas faced by them in everyday life.

This indispensable Handbook provides a timely and comprehensive guide to the methodological challenges of qualitative research in family business. Written by an international, multidisciplinary team of experts in the field, the Handbook takes a hands-on approach, offering valuable insights into a range of methods and related questions. Providing practical guidance based on the experiences of senior researchers, as well as expanding conceptual understanding of qualitative methods, chapters explore existing practices and issues common to many research projects, such as getting access to informants and technical or publication hurdles. Featuring reflective discussion on how to craft insightful, rigorous studies, the Handbook will increase scholars' confidence in using qualitative methods in their own research, from traditional case studies to more recent methods such as QCA. This Handbook will prove invaluable to instructors of qualitative research methods, as well as scholars and students of family business and entrepreneurship. Researchers using qualitative methods in other social sciences will also find its recommendations relevant and useful. Contributors include: R. Adiguna, N. Bhatnagar, M. Brumana, A. Calabro, A. Colli, A. Dawson, A. De Massis, C. Dessi, A. Dettori, G. Dorian, K.D. Elsbach, P. Fernandez Perez, D. Fletcher, M. Floris, I. Ghai, W. Gibb Dyer, V.L. Glaser, F. Hoy, A.E. James, J.E. Jennings, N. Kammerlander, K. Kampouri, R. Labaki, G. Laffranchini, G. Lauto, T. Leppaaho, L. Melin, E. Micelotta, L.M. Nor, M. Nordqvist, E. Paavilainen-Mantymaki, M.J. Parada Balderrama, D. Pittino, E. Plakoyiannaki, C. Pongelli, K. Ramachandran, A. Ruzzene, A.G. Sandig, P. Sharma, E.A. Tetzlaff, J. van Helvert-Beugels, K. Vasilevska, F. Visintin, M. Waldkirch, M. Yusof

This book is focused on management succession in the context of family firms, i.e. the transition of leadership from one generation to the next, and reports the results of an exploratory analysis conducted in the early stage of the author's research on this topic. It is based on a multiple case-study of the managerial practices adopted in successful and unsuccessful successions, and provides an attempt to increase our understanding of how the process of succession in family firms can be successfully managed.