The role and impact of emotions in family business strategy: New approaches and paradigms Franz W. Kellermanns a,b, *, Clay Dibrell c , Cristina Cruz d a Department of Management, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223-000, United States b Center for Family Enterprises, WHU (Otto Beisheim School of Management), Germany c Department of Management, University of Mississippi, 337 Holman Hall, University, MS 38677, United States d Department of Entrepreneurship, IE Business School, C/Maria de Molina 11,13, Madrid 28006, Spain Introduction Due to the nature of family firms, families and their businesses are characterized by a wide a range of emotions that result from daily situations and are not static, as they emerge and evolve through more or less critical events in each family business system (e.g., succession, divorce, illness, etc.). Early research has focused on conflict in family firms and the resulting negative emotions (e.g., Beckhard & Dyer, 1983; Dyer, 1986) and this research has continued over the decades (e.g., Kellermanns & Eddleston, 2004; McKee, Madden, Kellermanns, & Eddleston, 2014). Other research on emotions has gained recent attention in the family business field such as research focused on the emotional benefits and cost of owning a firm (e.g., Astrachan & Jaskiewicz, 2008; Zellweger & Astrachan, 2008), while others focused directly on emotional differences between family and non-family firms (e.g., Morris, Allen, Kuratko, & Brannon, 2010; Stanley, 2010). Simultaneously, research on socioemotional wealth began to develop (Go ´ mez- Mejı ´a, Haynes, Nu ´n ˜ ez-Nickel, Jacobson, & Moyano-Fuentes, 2007), which stresses the emotional benefits and potential dark sides of owning a family firm (Berrone, Cruz, & Go ´ mez-Mejı ´a, 2012; Kellermanns, Eddleston, & Zellweger, 2012). Scholars may not agree on the exact terminology when emotions in family firms are described. However, they agree that the boundaries between family and the firm are rather blurred in family businesses (Danes & Morgan, 2004; Labaki, Michael- Tsabari, & Zachary, 2013). These emotions permeate the organization ultimately affecting how the firm conducts its activities (Bjo ¨ rnberg & Nicholson, 2007). Yet, the inclusion of emotions in the analysis of strategic decision making in family firms is in its infancy. Accordingly, this special issue was designed to highlight the need for more research on emotions in family firms in general and to further our understanding of the role of emotions in the strategic decision making process of the family firm in particular. Being associated with the IFERA conference in Bordeaux and an open call for papers, we are fortunate to publish five articles that focus on a variety of aspects on how emotions play an important part in the daily life and strategic decision making of family firms. Below, we provide a brief overview of the articles in this special issue. We conclude the introduction by highlighting additional avenues for future research. Articles in this special issue The first article in this special issue by Morgan and Go ´ mez-Mejı ´a (2014) provides a comprehensive review of the role of emotions in shaping family business strategy, examining the antecedents, moderators, mediators and consequences of emotions in family business contexts. Using the concept of socioemotional wealth as an overarching framework, the authors revisited how emotions impact and are impacted by managerial decisions in family firms including succession, governance, human resource practices and external stakeholder relationships. The review suggests that family firms are Journal of Family Business Strategy 5 (2014) 277–279 A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Emotions Strategic management Family business A B S T R A C T Family businesses abound with emotions. How emotions affect strategic decision making in family business remains little understood. The articles featured in this special issue break new grounds in exploring the role and impact of emotions in family business strategy. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the content featured in the special issue and to provide a comprehensive and unified foundation for subsequent studies by offering specific suggestions for developing a future research agenda. ß 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Department of Management, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223-000, United States. E-mail addresses: kellermanns@uncc.edu (F.W. Kellermanns), cdibrell@bus.olemiss.edu (C. Dibrell), cristina.cruz@ie.edu (C. Cruz). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Family Business Strategy jou r nal h o mep ag e: w ww .elsevier .co m /loc ate/jfb s http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2014.08.002 1877-8585/ß 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.