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The notion that the family have a profound effect on human behavior is indisputable and has been studied extensively, including business administration. However, these studies have focused on developed countries. So, it can be identifying a research gap related to understand these countries, especially from a contextual perspective, which is the one that has received less attention from the academy.

This paper presents a theoretical review of the contextual perspective of the study of family businesses that concludes with the proposal of a model that integrates the structural barriers to contextualize the analysis family businesses in emerging economies, especially in rural zones.

Three case studies of companies located in the Puuc biocultural region in Yucatan, México, are presented and discussed.

The cases presented are family businesses: “Vida Vida,” “La Vaquita,” and “Lool-Beek” in which similarities were found in the way they face the particularities of their environment and how the integration of family members responds to uncertainty due to the precarious legal framework and the scant economic development they face.

This paper proposes that the structural barriers faced by emerging countries should be integrated as a differentiated variable, especially those located in rural areas since there imply greater challenges than urban areas. Likewise, it highlights that the emotional connections of family businesses with their territory give them roots, and this contributes to the continuity of their businesses and empowers them to face challenges such as natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing on indigenous theory of Ibn Khaldun, the rise and fall of States, this paper explores the agency of women entrepreneurs in family business in Bahrain and the underlying enablers in supporting and facilitating the exercise of this agency. This study attempts to move beyond the Western-centric studies to reflect and bring to light the unique institutional settings of the Gulf States.

The research builds on a rich qualitative single case of a family business based in Bahrain. The single case study methodology was motivated by the potential for generating rich contextual insights. Such an approach is particularly valuable to gain a more holistic and deeper understanding of the contextualized phenomenon and its complexity.

In this study the authors show how women entrepreneurs take two different paths to enter and become involved in the family business, the barriers they are subjected to and the active role they play in dismantling the challenges to the extent that they become the main mediators between the family business and central institutions in society.

By incorporating indigenous theory with Western family business concepts, the study extends existing understanding of women entrepreneurs in family business by underscoring the agency that women entrepreneurs have in “doing context” and the role that women play in strengthening common cause and destiny within the family and the business by building and drawing on different forms of loyalty.

This article is the editorial for the special issue on “Entrepreneurial Families in Business Across Generations, Contexts and Cultures”. We aim to develop a road map that can help academics and practitioners navigate the findings of the articles contained in this special issue. We also suggest future lines of research around the topic of entrepreneurial families in business.

We develop a conceptual model for interpreting and understanding entrepreneurial families in business across contexts and time.

Our conceptual model highlights the importance of context and time when conducting research on entrepreneurial families in business.

The findings in this special issue will be of relevance for decision makers who tailor policies that embrace different economic and social actors, including entrepreneurial families.

This editorial and the articles that make up this special issue contribute to family business research by contextualising the phenomenon of entrepreneurial families in business. We propose a new holistic perspective to incorporate context and time in the study of entrepreneurial families that own, govern and manage family firms over time.

The transfer of knowledge has been identified as an important part of the family business succession process. This paper examines the knowledge transfer process from the founder to the successor to understand and model the factors that influence the knowledge transfer process in the Vietnamese family business context.

This research adopts an inductive qualitative approach, conducting face-to-face semi-structured interviews with five father-son succession pairs. The interviews with founders and successors, ten in total, formed the basis of five case studies. The cases were all at an advanced stage of the process of business knowledge transfer and family business succession.

A contextualized model was developed, highlighting the main factors that influence the knowledge transfer process from the founder to the successor in a Vietnamese family business context. This model identifies the influence of factors, some of which are not commonly presented in western family business literature. These include the importance of the role of the mother in mediating the relationship quality between the founder and the successor and the successor pursuing education and external work experience to improve their cognitive and reflective abilities. The need for the affinity between family members is also highlighted as important.

In Vietnam, most family-run businesses are still under the control of the founder. This research provides insight into the succession process in Vietnam. This research addresses calls for further exploration into the factors that influence the transfer of knowledge in the family business succession process and to research this process in a collectivist society, both of which remain under-researched.

The authors conceptually theorize the obstacles and opportunities that women encounter in family businesses embedded in Latin America, by differentiating between two clusters of countries embedded in this continent.

Using secondary data obtained from various sources, the authors adopted a flexible pattern matching methodology, which involves linking theoretical propositions with actual observed patterns. For each proposition, the authors categorize the comparison with the observed data as either confirming or rivaling the expected patterns in the clusters.

This study’s findings reveal that women have more leadership and employment opportunities in the first cluster (Brazil, Chile, and Mexico) than in the second (Argentina, Colombia, and Peru). The authors propose that these differences are the result of higher tolerance for women in political leadership positions and of the presence of larger and more internationally expanding corporations in the first cluster. We also find differences between two groups of women: female family members and female nonfamily members, with the former being granted much more opportunities than the latter.

This research increases the understanding of potential avenues for managers and policymakers in Latin America to foster gender diversity as a means to remain competitive in a global market. While actions at the state level may be more long-term oriented, others, such as those taken by small and medium-sized family businesses may have more immediate effects in minimizing gender biases and encouraging a greater participation of females in business.

By differentiating between two clusters of countries in Latin America, and by making careful consideration of whether females have family ties, the authors provide a more realistic and contextualized theoretical map that depicts the situation of women in Latin American family businesses. This contextualization is one of the first that attempts to examine how multiple institutional logics impact women in family businesses in an underexplored region of the world while differentiating between female family members and female nonfamily members. These findings inform policymakers and family business owners in Latin America on the peculiar challenges that women encounter in their context, while calling for more measures promote the active presence of females in Latin American family businesses.

More than three decades support the research on the family business. The progress achieved, beyond the disagreements, is considerable. However, significant changes in the macro and microenvironment, and their influence on the companies lead to rethinking new perspectives. This new research agenda is multidimensional to achieve a deeper understanding of the essence of the family business. The objective is to find axes that allow hold up the family business to overcome new challenges. Renowned authors from all over the world have reflected on this and offered us new and high-quality perspectives to enrich debate and promote research.

There is a growing interest on how critical perspectives can help us understand family businesses. Current literature suggests that critical reflection is needed in aspects such as conflict, fear, and emotions. In this chapter, we argue that the use of a critical perspective illuminates the intricate complexities of family business behavior and that a critical discussion around fear, which is conceptualized as both an inhibitor and a motivator for business, plays a significant role in the dark side of family business. To advance understanding, we review recent conversations that can help us understand better the role of fear; how does this impact on resilience? And, how do feelings and emotions impact family firms? In our review, we argue that perspectives that focus on specific tangible resources (e.g. financial) are limited to explain how families in business may deal with fear. A critical perspective suggests that three areas merit further attention: fear of failure, effects of failure, and the intersection between entrepreneurial learning and the effects of fear in the dark side of family businesses. By contextualizing critical approaches, we provide insight for researchers, policymakers, and those operating family businesses alike.

Family businesses are value-based enterprises, contributing significantly to wealth creation. Although extensive research is conducted on family businesses, there is no study investigating how the cultural traits in the Arab world affect the organizational culture of family businesses. This paper discusses how the cultural characteristics in the Arab world shape family enterprises and explores how the Arab world's organizational culture enables family firms to establish competitive advantage underpinned by founder centrality, the concept of family, and business principles spanning many generations.

A thorough search of the extant literature was done in Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, and ScienceDirect using a combination of keywords such as Arab culture, family businesses, family firm culture, organizational culture, cultural traits, management strategies, and entrepreneurial strategies. Selected articles were classified according to their content, reviewed, and analyzed.

This study makes a few critical contributions about the nature, and the origins of organizational culture in family firms, entailing the founder's centrality and stewardship theory. Specifically, family firms in the examined region appear to have a stronger firm culture compared to non-family businesses. Also, organizational culture affects family businesses considering the firm-level outcomes, such as hereditary transition success, family inertia, etc.

This paper adds to the existing theoretical knowledge and underlines the cultural traits and family firm culture in the Arab world. A framework is presented, offering practical recommendations to managers of family firms striving to advance their competitiveness.