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The literature related to knowledge management (KM) is robust with respect to insights regarding firms in general. However, less is known about the KM of family firms despite these firms being the most common form of business organization worldwide. Further, even though the number of studies examining family-firm KM has increased in recent years, the insights gained remain fragmented. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to help coalesce and advance the study of family-firm KM.

In pursuit of these goals, a systematic literature review was conducted. Using a 6-step, systematic literature review protocol, 74 articles focused on family-firm KM published in 23 journals were identified and reviewed.

This literature review contributes to the synthesis and advancement of family-firm KM scholarship in several ways. First, key factors and relationships are identified and integrated into a robust framework. Second, scholarly insights are synthesized, and a review of the primary antecedents, outcomes and moderating factors associated with family-firm KM processes is presented. Third, promising opportunities for future research are highlighted to advance family-firm KM scholarship.

With a focus on reducing the fragmentation in the literature, this review synthesizes insights related to the most commonly studied antecedents, outcomes and moderators associated with family-firm KM. Additionally, antecedents are organized and reviewed according to the nature of their influence on family-firm KM processes, highlighting the simultaneous opposite effects of some influences. Further, key outcomes are synthesized based on their family versus firm-centric orientation. Even further, insights and opportunities focused on advancing the theory, antecedents, outcomes, moderators and other issues related to family-firm KM are presented in an effort to support the continued progress of scholarship in this area.

The purpose of the study is to empirically extend and validate a measure of absorptive capacity (ACAP) and examine its role in leveraging the benefits of diversity on innovation within global virtual teams (GVTs). This study validates a multidimensional measure of ACAP for use within the GVT. GVTs are increasingly utilized in industry given their ability to bring together diverse knowledge and experience from geographically dispersed individuals.

The hypotheses of this research were tested using a field survey to collect real world knowledge about GVTs. The survey method is a research technique in which data is collected from a sample of individuals using a questionnaire.

Using a sample of GVT members, the authors find that ACAP significantly mediates the relationships between diversity (deep-level diversity, functional-level) and innovation.

The implications for the study of GVTs is discussed and recommendations are offered. GVTs, as investigated in this study, include members that use electronic media for some or all of their interactions and collaboration with other team members.

This study validates and operationalizes the multi-dimensional ACAP construct at the GVT level: its relationship with diversity and its influence on GVT innovation.

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.

Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.

This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.

The purpose of this article is to integrate organizational capabilities into the place branding process to showcase how a lead destination marketing organization (DMO) can influence a customer-based brand equity outcome. Doing so highlights the strategic, relational nature of place branding. The authors focus specifically on first- and zero-order capabilities, integrating absorptive capacity (first-order) and an innovation capability (zero-order) into a place branding framework. We define an innovation capability within a place branding context and offer absorptive capacity as a mechanism through which DMO leaders can exploit external knowledge acquisition.

The paper presents a theoretical framework of the place branding process that integrates firm capabilities. A framework based on analyzing existing place branding models and integrating organizational capabilities, which find root in strategic management literature, was developed.

Findings indicate that existing frameworks address operational and customer capabilities in some manner yet largely ignore innovation capabilities. A definition of an innovation capability for place brand managers and scholars is offered, and offer absorptive capacity as means to integrate external knowledge into the DMO. Utilizing multiple levels of capabilities allows a firm to influence customer-based brand equity. Testable propositions based on the authors' framework are offered.

Managerial implications of integrating stakeholder capabilities into place branding include appreciating a culture of innovation within DMOs, learning from external stakeholders meaningfully and regularly and encouraging creative thinking that can produce new processes, policies or services.

By integrating organizational capabilities, attention is drawn to internal aspects of the place branding process the place can control directly. Capabilities dictate how an organization sees itself; learns from its stakeholders; and then integrates that knowledge into organizational, stakeholder and innovation capabilities. Therefore, capabilities are inherently internal mechanisms through which a DMO can influence place brand outcomes, which are understood here as brand equity elements.

In family business studies, inconsistent findings exist regarding the relationship between family involvement and firm innovation. The purpose of this paper is to understand the heterogeneity of family firm innovation.

The authors draw on governance literature and the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective to examine how the extent of family governance and the type of SEW objectives jointly influence innovation strategies in family firms.

The authors develop a typology of family firm innovation strategies, positing that the family firm’s risk orientation, innovation goal, and knowledge diversity vary depending on the degree of family involvement in governance and the type of SEW objective. The authors propose that four family firm innovation strategies (e.g. Limited Innovators, Intended Innovators, Potential Innovators, and Active Innovators) emerge when family involvement in the dominant coalition (high or low) is contrasted with the SEW objective (restricted or extended) pursued by the family.

Understanding how governance and SEW goals work together to influence the firm’s innovation strategies is potentially valuable for managers of family firms. The authors offer practical suggestions for how to strategically reposition the firm to pursue innovation strategies more in line with those of the Active Innovator.

This study contributes to the family business literature by using a multi-dimensional approach to examine family firm heterogeneity. In addition, by articulating various family firm innovation strategies, the authors offer insight into the previously inconsistent findings concerning firm innovation behavior and outcomes in family business studies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of cultural assimilation – termed “transculturation” – on work ethic perceptions, thus this study examines trends in work ethic across ethnic and generational groups within the USA.

Following a literature review on work ethic, ethnicity, and transculturation, an analysis of variance based on 873 survey responses is presented. The sample includes undergraduate and graduate students at several public universities within the USA.

An empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that the variation of work ethic perceptions within the Millennial generation is significantly less than the variation among older generations. The authors find no significant difference in general work ethic perceptions among Millennial ethnic groups.

While the study is conducted using a convenience sample, the demographics are closely representative of the USA labor force. The results suggest that Millennials, while a more diverse ethnic population, exhibit less variation among work ethic perceptions than earlier generational groups.

Understanding differences in work ethic perceptions across various ethnic groups is valuable for managers interested in designing jobs that appropriately exploit the full value of a multi-generational workforce.

The findings of this study offer new insights into how more recent generations, while more ethnically diverse, exhibit a convergence in perceptions of work ethic.