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This paper aims to examine how organisational values affect diversity in terms of different competencies in rural family Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Recruiting a diverse workforce in rural family SMEs can be particularly difficult due to the prevalence of internal family values and the lack of available local specialised competencies. A deficiency of diversity in employment and competence acquisition and development can create problems, as it often prevents rural family SMEs from recruiting employees with a wide variety of qualifications and skills.

The study takes on a multi-case method of Swedish rural family SMEs, applying a qualitative content analysis approach. In total, 20 in-depth structured interviews are conducted with rural family SME owners and 2 industries were investigated and compared – the tourism and the manufacturing industries.

Rural family SMEs lack long-term employment strategies, and competence diversity does not appear to be a priority for rural family SMEs, as they often have prematurely decided who they will hire rather than what competencies are needed for their long-term business development. It is more important to keep the team of employees tight and the family spirit present than to include competence diversity and mixed qualifications in the employment acquisition and development.

Contrary to prior research, our findings indicate that rural family SMEs apply short-term competence diversity strategies rather than long-term prospects regarding competence acquisition and management, due to their family values and rural setting, which strictly narrows the selection of employees and competencies. Also, a general reluctance towards competence diversity is identified, which originates from the very same family values and rural context.

The purpose of this study is to provide a nuanced explanation of the linkage between entrepreneurial motivations, job attractiveness and growth of family-owned small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) using expectancy and institutional theories.

The data was collected from small family business owners and job seekers in the same companies during interview time using a simple random technique.

The study found that three EMs among small business owners play a pivotal role in family SME business growth in underdeveloped trade regions like China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. These firms are interested in investing in seaport-related commerce, restaurants or hotels and real estate business.

The government, small family business owners, universities and regional youth can use this applied research for their benefits alike.

The study contributes in multiple ways. First, the authors brought a unique context in the emerging economies context of an informal economy like Pakistan. Second, the authors have uniquely tested the moderating role of job attractiveness in the least developed regions. Finally, the authors have integrated family SMEs’ expectancy theory and institutional perspective.

The purpose of this study seeks to examine how nonfamily employees' job autonomy and work passion can influence their job satisfaction and intention to quit in family small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Current, research regarding the determinants of nonfamily employees' job satisfaction and turnover intentions has largely focused on the effects of family influence and family firm characteristics. Accordingly, not much is known of how the job characteristics and emotions of nonfamily employees influence their job satisfaction and intention to quit.

Data were collected from 160 nonfamily employees across 28 family-SMEs. Process macro was used to analyze the mediating role of nonfamily employees' work passion in the relationship between their job autonomy and job satisfaction and intention to quit.

Findings showed that nonfamily employees' job autonomy only had a significant direct effects on their job satisfaction and not their intention to quit. Subsequently, nonfamily employees' work passion was found to only partially mediate the relationship between their job autonomy and job satisfaction.

By focusing on the concepts of job autonomy and work passion, the study adds additional insights about the drivers of nonfamily employees' pro-organizational attitudes in family-SMEs. Also the study represents one of the first efforts in the literature to establish a link between job autonomy and the work passion of nonfamily employees with respect to their job satisfaction.

This study aims to analyze how the presence of women is seen in family small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) succession process from the successors' perspective.

To do so, the multiple case study method (qualitative approach) was used: five Brazilian SMEs and three Portuguese SMEs, and the data-collecting techniques were the online interview and documentary analysis. Data analysis was through content analysis using NVivo software.

The empirical evidence obtained led to the conclusion that the natural succession process is predominant in the family SMEs studied here. Although succession planning is present in some firms, these plans are informal and not rigid as regards deadlines. Nor do they present stages and tasks that could be considered as a planned succession.

The study shows that successors do not see gender as a relevant criterion for the choice of successor. It is concluded that women's participation in family SME succession, even to a lesser extent, is still marked by gender inequality. So, this study provides directions to policymakers and researchers to focus on developmental programmes for the presence of women in family SMEs' succession process.

Although some successors consider that these firms' performance may be different due to gender characteristics, others emphasize that management is the same. Therefore, this study provides the futuristic direction to policymakers, researchers and educators for focusing on the enhancement of women entrepreneurs which plays a crucial role in the family SMEs' succession process. Therefore, a conceptual framework is proposed that explains the articulation of different categories to understand the gender perspective in family firms' succession.

The assessment of the role of entrepreneurial passion in international entrepreneurship needs further attention. This study aims to fill this research gap by assessing the role of developing entrepreneurial passion, when moderated by the adversity of fragile countries, in the success of small and medium family enterprises’ (family SMEs) internationalization success.

Using time-lagged survey date from decision-makers on internationalized family SMEs from fragile countries (Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Syria) between 2020 and 2022, this study assesses the relationship between the entrepreneurial passion and family SMEs’ internationalization success as well as the moderating effect of the institutional context of these fragile countries.

The results demonstrated that the developing entrepreneurial passion is positively related to the family SMEs’ internationalization success. Moreover, the adversity of fragile home countries significantly moderates this relationship.

This study is a catalyst for future passion theoretical research on fragile countries. Moreover, it will encourage more studies on the understanding of the entrepreneurial passion for organizational performance of family SMEs, especially in an international context.

The vulnerability of the tourism industry to an array of risks, encompassing family-related, small- and medium-sized enterprise-specific, strategic, tourism-specific and external factors, highlights the landscape within which small and medium family enterprises (SMFEs) operate. Although SMFEs are an important stakeholder in the dynamic tourism sector, they are not one homogenous group of firms, but have different strategic orientations. This study aims to investigate the interplay between strategic orientation and risk perception to better understand SMFEs risk perception as it is impacting their decision-making processes, resilience and long-term survival. The authors investigate how different strategic orientations contribute to different perspectives on risk among owner-managers.

Based on a qualitative data corpus of 119 face-to-face interviews, the authors apply various coding rounds to better understand the relationship between strategic orientations and the perceptions of risks. Firstly, the authors analysed the owner–manager interviews and identified three groups of different strategic orientations: proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFE, destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFE and passive SMFE. Secondly, the authors coded the interviews for different risks identified. The authors identified that the three groups show differences in the risk perceptions.

The data unveil that the three groups of SMFEs have several differences in how they perceive risks. Proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs prioritize business risks, demonstrating a penchant for innovation and sustainability. Destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFEs perceive a broader range of risks, tying their investments to destination development, emphasizing family and health risks and navigating competitive pressures. Passive SMFEs, primarily concerned with external risks, exhibit limited awareness of internal and strategic risks, resist change and often defer decision-making to successors. The findings underscore how different strategic orientations influence risk perceptions and decision-making processes within SMFEs in the tourism industry.

The authors contribute to existing knowledge include offering a comprehensive status quo of perceived risks for different strategic orientations, a notably underexplored area. In addition, the differences with respect to risk perception shown in the paper suggest that simplified models ignoring risk perception may be insufficient for policy recommendations and for understanding the dynamics of the tourism sector. For future research, the authors propose to focus on exploring the possible directions in which strategic orientation and risk perception influence one another, which might be a limitation of this study due to its qualitative nature.

Varying strategic orientations and risk perceptions highlight the diversity within the stakeholder group of SMFE. Recognizing differences allows for more targeted interventions that address the unique concerns and opportunities of each group and can thus improve the firm’s resilience (Memili et al., 2023) and therefore leading to sustainability destinations development. The authors suggest practical support for destination management organizations and regional policymakers, aimed especially at enhancing the risk management of passive SMFEs. Proactive SMFE could be encouraged to perceive more family risks.

Viewing tourism destinations as a complex stakeholder network, unveiling distinct risk landscapes for various strategic orientations of one stakeholder has the potential to benefit the overall destination development. The proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs are highly pertinent as they might lead destinations to further development and create competitive advantage through innovative business models. Passive SMFEs might hinder the further development of the destination, e.g. through missing innovation efforts or succession.

Although different studies explore business risks (Forgacs and Dimanche, 2016), risks from climate change (Demiroglu et al., 2019), natural disasters (Zhang et al., 2023) or shocks such as COVID-19 (Teeroovengadum et al., 2021), this study shows that it does not imply that SMFE as active stakeholder perceive such risk. Rather, different strategic orientations are in relation to perceiving risks differently. The authors therefore open up an interesting new field for further studies, as risk perception influences the decision-making of tourism actors, and therefore resilience.

The complexity of succession in family firms is multifaceted and can sometimes lead to turbulence. While structured succession strategies offer a roadmap for smoother transitions, intergenerational differences in family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can lead to varied interpretations of an effective succession blueprint. This study synergizes the strategic entrepreneurship framework with the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective to probe into how formalized succession planning impacts performance in family SMEs. Furthermore, it delves into the mediating role of succession satisfaction, especially in family firms characterized by pronounced SEW and helmed by CEOs from different generational cohorts.

Employing a comprehensive dataset from 1,833 global family businesses, this research utilizes bootstrapping regression models to discern the intertwined effects of mediator and moderator variables and their statistical significance.

The main findings suggest that succession satisfaction does matter for a good succession process and that succession plans work only in family firms with a high degree of SEW and that are led by older family CEOs (e.g. baby boomers).

The results offer fresh perspectives on succession processes, with a particular focus on how to improve the satisfaction of millennial family CEOs.

The study uniquely combines strategic entrepreneurship and SEW to offer a holistic view of succession planning, highlighting satisfaction’s mediating role and SEW’s moderating influence. Additionally, it pioneers the incorporation of generational cohorts into the succession discourse.

The authors aimed to contribute to the interface of comparative international entrepreneurship and international marketing by exploring the micro-foundations and micro-processes of network bricolage aimed at international market entry among the entrepreneurs of small biotechnology firms. The research questions of the study are (1) How do the international entrepreneurs of small firms act and use their domestic and/or international networks for new market entry? (2) How are the micro-foundations and micro-processes of networking similar or different between individuals from different countries?

A qualitative research design was used to investigate six cases from different countries of origin, looking at the micro-foundations and micro-processes underlying international market entry undertaken by entrepreneurs from Canada, Finland and New Zealand.

The micro-foundations for network bricolage by international entrepreneurs were taken to involve features of the country of origin, including market size and location, and the usefulness of the official language of the nation. The micro-processes were taken to involve the international entrepreneur’s network bricolage actions (i.e. collaborating and generating, obtaining and applying, reaching and maintaining, and seeking and reviewing), while encompassing also the location of their networks (domestic and/or international) and the operational domains these belonged to (R&D, funding, sales channel and customer). The study categorised three types of international entrepreneurs undertaking new market entry, illustrating cross-national differences: (1) sales-channel-oriented seekers, (2) funding-oriented riders and (3) customer-oriented hunters.

The study contributes to research on comparative international entrepreneurship and international marketing. This findings show that national-level micro-foundations influence the actions of network bricolage, the importance of various operational domains and the location of the network ties used. This main contribution is a conceptual model based on our cross-national investigation of international entrepreneurs’ networking actions. The authors reveal the micro-foundations and micro-processes relevant to international entrepreneurs’ network bricolage for new market entry, and present examples of international entrepreneur types emerging from our cross-national setting.

This study aims to fulfil a twofold purpose: first, to discuss the changes and unique challenges that family firms (FFs) face during the COVID-19 pandemic and/or they will face in the post-COVID era, and second, to reflect on emerging research directions and contextual factors that should be taken into account in future explorations for the benefit of FF scholars who will study post-COVID FF internationalisation.

To address the twofold purpose of the study, we conduct an integrative review of 31 peer-reviewed journal articles in the international business (IB) and FF literature on COVID-19, FFs and internationalisation.

COVID-19 brought changes in IB strategies, IB relationships and human resource management. In responding and/or adapting to those changes, during and post-COVID, FFs face and are expected to face challenges that mainly refer to FFs’ transition to digitalisation and the simultaneous preservation of socio-emotional wealth dimensions while maintaining their international presence. The authors suggest that future research explores the role of digitalisation in achieving FFs’ internationalisation, IB relationship building activities and training and leading international employees. Further contextual factors (e.g. succession issues, family structures) should also be accounted for when exploring such post-COVID IB phenomena.

This study comprises an initial attempt to encompass the interface of FF internationalisation and COVID-19. It also proposes research directions that are likely to set the stage in FFs’ post-COVID internationalisation research.

The field of scientific research on small and medium-sized family businesses has been growing exponentially and the aim of this paper is to systematize the body of knowledge to develop an agenda for the future.

Adopting comparative bibliometric analyses on 155 articles (from 1989 until 2018) the authors provide a systematic assessment of the scientific research about small family firms, unveiling the structure and evolution of the field. Bibliographic coupling, co-citation analysis and co-occurrence analysis are adopted to identify the most influential studies and themes.

Four clusters of research are reviewed: succession in family SMEs, performances of family SMEs, internationalization of family SMEs and organizational culture of family SMEs.

This paper contributes to the field of family SMEs by providing a systematic analysis of the scientific knowledge. Reviewing those clusters allows to providing avenues and reflections for future research and further practice.