The Organizational Form of Family Business attempts to develop an evolutionary family business theory, positioning family businesses as a distinct organizational form (based on conjectures from organizational ecology). An open and uninhibited playing field - achieved through utilizing a grounded theory methodology - heightens chances for observing precisely how family businesses behave. An introductory chapter is followed by a literature review, beginning with a review of family business research. This is followed by a discussion of family business definitional issues, and accompanied by some data to show the economic importance of family business. There follows a review of the research literature on grounded theory, its developments, and its epistemological and ontological assumptions in the light of contemporary philosophy of science. A literature review and historical outline of organizational ecology including the theoretical achievements is provided. Also, the comparison with the other main organizational theories, justifying the theory selection, is offered.

The Organizational Form of Family Business attempts to develop an evolutionary family business theory, positioning family businesses as a distinct organizational form (based on conjectures from organizational ecology). An open and uninhibited playing field - achieved through utilizing a grounded theory methodology - heightens chances for observing precisely how family businesses behave. An introductory chapter is followed by a literature review, beginning with a review of family business research. This is followed by a discussion of family business definitional issues, and accompanied by some data to show the economic importance of family business. There follows a review of the research literature on grounded theory, its developments, and its epistemological and ontological assumptions in the light of contemporary philosophy of science. A literature review and historical outline of organizational ecology including the theoretical achievements is provided. Also, the comparison with the other main organizational theories, justifying the theory selection, is offered.