Starting at the Beginning: A Scoping Review of Family Business Founders

Abstract

Founders have significant influence over many domains within family businesses, and their impact on companies may be felt even after leadership succession. Founders have therefore received much attention from scholars, policymakers, and entrepreneurship educators. This chapter characterizes the current literature on family business founders by identifying the topics explored and the range of methods and methodologies used in recent years to outline a research agenda for future study of founders of family businesses.

A scoping review was conducted to examine the extent and essence of contemporaneous research activity related to family business founders. Scoping reviews describe current research activity without evaluating individual studies and are effective in summarizing significant concerns and themes, identifying areas of deficiency, and establishing recommendations for future directions in research. This scoping review used elements of a rapid review due to resource restrictions and this chapter discusses efforts to mitigate the limitations introduced as a result.

After summarizing the current academic conversation about family business founders, opportunities for future research topics and methodological approaches to the study of founders of family businesses are introduced.

Citation

Segares, M. (2022), "Starting at the Beginning: A Scoping Review of Family Business Founders", Montiel Méndez, O.J., Tomaselli, S. and Maciel, A.S. (Ed.) Family Business Debates, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 13-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-666-820221002