Strategy, ownership, governance, and socio-psychological perspectives on family businesses from around the world Sanjay Goel a,1 , Pietro Mazzola b,2 , Phillip H. Phan c,3 , Torsten M. Pieper d,4 , Ramona K. Zachary e, * a Department of Management Studies, Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 1318 Kirby Drive, Duluth, MN 55812-3002, USA b Economics and Marketing Department, IULM University, Via Carlo Bo, 8, 20143 Milan, Italy c The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Room 1319, 100 International Drive, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA d Cox Family Enterprise Center, Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain Road, #4900, Kennesaw, GA 30144-5591, USA e Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business, Management Department, Box B9-240, One Bernard Baruch Way, New York, NY 10010, USA 1. Introduction Traditionally, the overall scope of family firm strategy research has been narrow (Astrachan, 2010). This special issue expands on traditional approaches by exploring the heterogeneity of family firms relative to their strategies, ownership, governance, and socio-psychological dimensions. The issue represents theoretical and empirical research using micro and macro databases with various methodologies, including case studies and multivariate analyses. The diversity of countries spanning Europe, the Americas and Asia represented in this volume is a testimony to the global scope of family business research and to the impact of the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) and its recent conferences in Bogota ´, Colombia in March 2011 and in Sicily in June 2011. 5 2. Current state of the literature Family businesses are known to be the oldest form of business that pervades the world (IFERA, 2003; Zachary, Rogoff, & Phinisee, 2011). Previous family business research garnered little attention due to a lack of theoretical grounding and empirical rigor (Heck, Hoy, Poutziouris, & Steier, 2008; Zachary & Mishra, 2011). Currently, family business research is gaining momentum and is the fastest growing discipline in business research (Astrachan & Journal of Family Business Strategy 3 (2012) 54–65 A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Strategy Ownership Governance Socio-Psychological Perspectives Family Business A B S T R A C T This prologue to the special issue documents and discusses the current family business research literature on strategy, ownership, governance and the socio-psychological dimension. The articles in this special issue represent theoretical and empirical research using micro and macro databases with various methodologies, including case studies and multivariate analyses. In particular, the ownership and governance literature relative to family businesses is critically reviewed, and traditional perspectives are challenged by leading scholars. Each of five competitive research articles is contextualised relative to the extant literature, and the contributions of each article are duly noted and discussed. Possible future research directions are suggested, 13 research propositions are identified, and future research needs are delineated. Finally, researchers are challenged to (a) question the extant business research in general, (b) broaden their research perspectives to both the family system and the business system, and (c) begin dialogue with scholars in related and relevant disciplines. ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 646 312 3649; fax: +1 646 312 3621. E-mail addresses: sgoel@d.umn.edu (S. Goel), pietro.mazzola@iulm.it (P. Mazzola), pphan@jhu.edu (P.H. Phan), tpieper@kennesaw.edu (T.M. Pieper), Ramona.Zachary@baruch.cuny.edu (R.K. Zachary). 1 Tel.: +1 218 726 6574; fax: +1 218 726 7578. 2 Tel.: +39 02 891412636; fax: +39 02 891412814. 3 Tel.: +1 410 234 9434. 4 Tel.: +1 770 423 6724; fax: +1 770 423 6721. 5 IFERA is pleased to support this special issue of The Journal of Family Business Strategy. IFERA is the premier academic organisation that brings together scholarly researchers from around the world and holds an annual family business research conference that attracts approximately 250 family business researchers and doctoral students from over 45 countries. In addition to the academic conference, IFERA’s doctoral and faculty consortia engage approximately 50 participants, who benefit from interactive sessions led by as many as 15 renowned and active scholars from inside and outside the field on various cutting-edge topics relevant to family business research. IFERA aims to organise forums that offer an inspiring scholarly environment, foster exchanges on various interesting research questions, and contribute to the development of a research community and its knowledge about family businesses. More information is available at www.ifera.org. Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Family Business Strategy jou r nal h o mep ag e: w ww .elsevier .co m /loc ate/jfb s 1877-8585/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2012.03.005