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Risk is part of corporate activity and a consequence of the businesses' demands, the market and the changes in companies and their surroundings. The way that risk is managed is different between family and non-family businesses. The paper aims to compare the different risk types experienced in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic among family and non-family businesses and to analyze whether operational, legal, strategic and image risks influence financial risks.

The nature of the study is quantitative and based on a questionnaire survey that analyses the perception of risks by 1,090 family businesses and 557 non-family businesses.

The results show the existence of statistically significant differences in the perception of financial and legal risks between family and non-family businesses, where the former being the businesses that give more importance to these risks. The perception of operational, legal, strategic and image risks have a positive influence on the perception of financial risk in family and non-family businesses.

The results obtained in the study are important because they allow an understanding about the differences in risk management between family and non-family businesses, which can lead to greater corporate sustainability and increased financial performance.

The purpose of this research was to compare the use of non-family-members in the higher-level management team of Arab/Islamic family businesses versus American family businesses.

This research gathered survey data and tested the hypothesis using analysis of covariance.

American family businesses engaged the services of non-family-member managers to a statistically significant greater degree than did Arab/Islamic family businesses.

The research literature on Arab/Islamic entrepreneurship is very limited, and a family business study of this nature has not been previously conducted. This study furthermore challenges the common assumption that the findings generated in one specific country can usually be generalized to the broader phenomenon of family business, as it exists in most countries.

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate whether the transition from a family business to a non‐family business affects the institutionalisation of management accounting.

This paper is based on an online survey among all large and medium‐sized Austrian firms. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were used to test the impact of the level of family influence on aspects of the institutionalisation of management accounting. Firm size is included as the main control variable.

A lower level of influence from the controlling family was found to be correlated with the institutionalisation and intensification of management accounting in medium‐sized firms. For large firms, such a linear relationship could not be drawn. The level of education of management accountants was inversely correlated with the level of family influence in both large and medium‐sized firms.

Further research into the reasons, underlying drivers and inter‐organisational promoters of management accounting change in family businesses is needed. Furthermore, the organisational impacts of the transition from family businesses to non‐family businesses deserve further investigation.

A framework for assessing the organisational effects of the transition from family businesses to non‐family businesses is provided. The empirical results on the impact of the transition on the institutionalisation of management accounting are presented. The level of family influence was found to act as a significant contextual factor for the organisation of management accounting in medium‐sized firms.

Human resource management is an understudied but burgeoning topic in the family business scholarly domain. This chapter provides a summary review of the existing literature on human resource management in family businesses and offers pathways for future research. The authors cluster the extant research into topic areas of compensation, recruitment and selection, training, employee performance, and turnover, and offer future research directions for each. In identifying gaps and tension in the literature, the chapter also highlights several broader theoretical pathways for future research. These opportunities include further inquiry into the outcomes of bifurcation bias, or the disparate treatment between family and non-family employees, the nuanced ways family firms recruit and select new employees, the role of high-performance work systems in family firms, the ways image considerations influence human resource practices in family firms, and the application of social network perspectives.

Family business brand communication depends on the effect of the family on stakeholders' perception, and the family influences stakeholders differently, raising the question of whether family business branding varies across stakeholders. Drawing on social identity theory, this research classifies a family firm's stakeholders into family (in-group) and non-family (out-group) stakeholders and explores the communication of family business brands to these two groups of stakeholders.

Data for this research were gathered from a questionnaire survey of 327 Chinese family firms.

The results show that family business brand communication differs between family and non-family stakeholders. Additionally, family harmony has a positive relationship with family business branding to family stakeholders and an inverse U-shaped relationship with family business branding to non-family stakeholders.

This research is the first to demonstrate that family business brand communication varies across stakeholders and that the effect of family characteristics (family harmony in this research) on family business branding differs between stakeholders. In addition, it expands the scope of the out-group in family firms to embrace all non-family stakeholders and suggests an intergroup opposition between family and non-family stakeholders, which is important for advancing family firm theory.

To advance the scholarly understanding of family firm management by outlining the Australian experience with “real” differences between family and non‐family firms.

Utilising data from 2,190 Australian SMEs, industry based analysis focused on whether family businesses differ significantly from non‐family businesses within the framework of multivariate regression models that control for size and age of the firm.

The level of difference with non‐family firms is industry specific, varied, and generally lower than reported in the past. Manufacturing is the industry with most differences.

There are fewer differences between family and non‐family firms than we have been led to believe. Methodologies that control for context are essential. Studies are needed that explain why family firms differ more with non‐family firms in some industries than they do in others. Studies that uncover the “real” differences between large family and non‐family firms are also called for as the results shown here may be specific to SMEs. Agency theory may be more appropriate to large rather than small firms.

The level of context and size of dataset utilised in this study is rarely seen in family business research. Its value lays in bringing “real” Australian differences to the attention of scholars, supporting the need for better methodologies, demonstrating the importance of industry and size as determinants of context and outlining the heterogeneous nature of family firms.

Our paper seeks to further understand how family involvement in management influences firm growth.

Using a sample of small high-tech firms, we classify three different types of firms: family firms managed by family-CEOs, family firms managed by non-family CEOs and non-family firms.

Consistent with our expectations, we show that firms managed by family-CEOs have less firm growth in comparison with the other two groups. When the family firm is managed by non-family CEOs, the presence of another family member in management positions has a negative impact on firm growth. Finally, we found that founder-led family firms have better firm growth than descendant-led family firms.

Implications for the theory of family firms are discussed.

The value of the present study is to analyse in depth the heterogeneity of the family business trying to close the gap by exploring the effect of family involvement on small firm growth. Thus, we will find different behaviours of these family companies, depending on the family member’s presence in management positions.

Much of the literature relating to human resource management (HRM) has attempted to demonstrate that the “Human resource” is the most valued asset in a company. Large companies have revolutionised their approach to the training and development of their personnel in order to maximise their “competitive edge”. Hotly debated is whether investment in “good HRM” is linked to commercial success. However, very little is known about HRM practices within the small‐ to medium‐size business (SME) and even less is known about the practice within a family business. This survey describes the HRM practices of SMEs (both family and non‐family businesses) in Northern Ireland. Comparisons between the groups are made and findings suggest that family businesses practice HRM differently than their non‐family counterparts. Implications for the training and development of these two groups question whether family businesses need to be treated as a “special case”.

Women who work in family businesses operate in very different settings from non‐family business women. Their work may involve travel to a workplace away from home, but it is not away from family. Using data collected during telephone and face‐to‐face interviews, the author examines the interpersonal networks of family business and non‐family business women. The article presents a brief background of the issues involved in the study of interpersonal networks, women′s roles in networks and their implicaations for women′s family business participation. Through a discussion of the research findings, the influence of life in a family business on women′s personal and professional development is questioned.

This paper examines the findings of a large‐scale postal survey based on an adaptation of the Cranfield Network (CRANET) Survey of International Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) to facilitate the analysis of HRM practices in the SME business environment. These findings are considered in light of a review of HRM literature. The survey utilised a sample of 1,369 organisations representing every company employing between 20‐100 people in Northern Ireland. This paper analyses key issues emerging from the 219 (16 per cent) responses received and provides a comparison of HRM practices in family and non‐family businesses. Overall, the findings suggest that family business practices within HRM are different than their non‐family counterparts.