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The purpose of this paper is to explore the internationalization process of small and medium family-owned businesses (FOBs). The authors strive to explain the extent to which family business CEOs identify a signal in either the domestic or international environment for internationalization as a viable business opportunity.

The authors rely on signal detection theory to develop a conceptual model that explains the cognitive process inducing the CEO-founder of an FOB to discover and exploit an opportunity in the international market.

The conceptual model proposes that constraints in a family-firm’s domestic market, as well as opportunities in the foreign market act, as signal strength. However, family business CEO-founders’ centrality and inward orientation might lead them to ignore a signal by generating noise and reducing the motivation to collect further information concerning the trustworthiness of the signal.

The model is conceptual; future research should strive for a potential way to operationalize the cognitive process described herein. In addition, the theoretical argument has been developed in the context of family firms wherein the founder plays a pivotal role. Future research may extend the theoretical arguments to those family firms that are at an advanced stage of development.

The study reconciles conflicting findings concerning the internationalization of FOBs. In doing so, the authors employ an interdisciplinary approach and develop a conceptual model that sheds additional light on the cognitive processes underlying internationalization decisions among founder-centered family firms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between available slack and firm performance in Italian family-controlled public firms (FCPFs) from 2006 to 2010. In addition the authors analyze the moderating effects of specific board structure variables on the relationship between slack resources and firms’ performance.

A pooled cross-section of family and non-family publicly traded firms was drawn from COMPUSTAT global and matched with corporate governance and family firm variables hand-collected from companies’ standard profiles from Italy's primary stock exchange, Borsa Italiana. The hypotheses were tested using the feasible generalized least square method in order to analyze the data from 583 firms-observations, controlling for self-selection bias and reverse causality.

The study shows that FCPFs with available slack experience less than proportionate increases in performance, suggesting a concave curvilinear slack-performance relationship. However, the slack-performance relationship is contingent on board independence and board size: greater board independence and larger boards in FCPFs relate to higher performance when the firm lacks or has too much slack available. The findings suggest that a balanced approach of oversight and stewardship helps families to make better resources allocation, to the benefit of outside shareholders as well.

The slack measure was restricted to available slack. Future studies can expand this research inquiry with other forms of slack, including potential and recoverable slack. The sample included only publicly traded family and non-family firms, thereby limiting the generalizability of the findings to other types of family enterprises. Lastly, the results only attend to the slack-performance relationship by controlling whether the firm's performance is below or above the industry average.

Policy makers and non-family stakeholders may rely on the findings better understand the factors that can alter the family's propensity for risks and its related strategic decisions in the Italian context. Procedures to fully monitor family management's decision making or, at the other extreme, to give the family free reign are likely to disadvantage families, their business, and their outside stakeholders.

The study reconciles the debate on the role of slack on firms’ performance by proposing a curvilinear relationship. The study is one of only a handful of research inquiries centrally addressing the role of slack in family-owned businesses, and the only analysis focussed on Italian FCPFs.

This editorial aims to provide an overview of the current state of research in the UK and proposes some future directions for research for family business scholars.

This article is an editorial with commentary about recent developments in understanding research gaps in the field of family business research.

The paper discusses the areas where future research in family business is required focusing on three levels: the organization; the individual; and the community.

The paper suggests that there are many unanswered questions which merit further and future research.

The future of family business research is not in question. The paper posits that there are areas of study in family business which may particularly benefit from taking a cross‐disciplinary approach and suggests that family business researchers might consider exploring theory in the entrepreneurship, small business, sociology, economics and industrial relations areas to gain insights and support for theoretical development in family business.

This article highlights recent UK‐focused discussions regarding the future research directions and gaps in family business research. It suggests there are some emerging areas which require renewed focus particularly related to strategic decision making in family businesses from the organization, individual and social/community perspectives.

The chapter details the development of one of the most lucrative professional sports for women in the world, while drawing attention to institutionalised issues of racism and sexism in the sport. We discuss the history of women in professional golf, from the roots of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), through the modern-day game where women now play for large sums of money each week. We then shed light on the development of a global tour which started with the likes of Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, and Se Ri Pak dominating a once Americentric tour, and how the LPGA struggled to embrace this cultural shift via the Five Points of Celebrity marketing plan and the contentious English-speaking rule. The discussion then moves to focal point of the chapter: the US media's reaction to long-time American professional golf coach and former radio broadcaster Hank Haney's disparaging comments before and at the conclusion of the 2019 Women's US Open. Twenty-five articles were collected from US golf and sport media outlets and coded resulting in four themes: (1) a downplaying of the remarks, (2) ambivalence to the women's game, (3) a privileging of men, and (4) a global tour. The chapter concludes with remarks that highlight the media's struggle to find the appropriate framing and language to cover the incident and how an intersectional approach reveals that oppression of women on the LPGA Tour exists beyond gender.