Knowledge, Renewal and Flexibility: Exploratory Research in Family Firms

Knowledge management in family business succession: current trends and future directions

Purpose

This paper aims to review the literature on knowledge management in the family business, addressing the research question as follows: “How is knowledge managed across generations in the family business?” This study synthesizes the literature, highlighting the role of multiple stakeholders who affect knowledge management along with the phases of the succession process. Stemming from these findings and embracing a practice-based view, this paper offers research directions to guide future contributions on knowledge construction in the family business. The purpose of this study is not only to conclude the previous research but also to provide insights for future research directions and to provide practical implications.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a systematic integrative literature review, this paper collects map and analytically examine 63 published peer-reviewed articles related to knowledge management in the family business from 39 academic journals. This paper applies a rigorous approach to identify the sample of articles, map descriptive information of the reviewed literature and map theoretical contributions according to a multi-stakeholder and multi-stage framework.

Findings

The sampled articles are analyzed according to a multi-stakeholder and multi-stage framework inspired by Daspit et al. (2016). This study identifies critical gaps emerging from the analysis, thus opening the way to future research directions. In particular, this paper prompts scholars to advance the understanding of family-related knowledge and to clarify the assumptions on knowledge in their research.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the debate on knowledge management in the family business, by systematizing the current literature. In addition, this study embraces a “knowledge from practice perspective” and offers research directions to guide future contributions on knowledge construction in family business succession and potential areas to further management research investigating the role of family-related knowledge. Practical implications are also provided to benefit family businesses, consultants and policymakers.

Originality/value

This study provides a systematic integrative literature review of the articles published on knowledge management in family business according to a multi-stakeholder and multi-stage framework. Moreover, it draws an agenda for future research advancing a “knowledge from a practice perspective” in the family business literature.

Knowledge Management in the Esports Industry: Sustainability, Continuity, and Achievement of Competitive Results

The increasing popularity and exponential growth of esports as a worldwide phenomenon has created a whole new industry with important implications for the different key players in the value chain. The digitalization process, which accelerated after the global spread of COVID-19, has introduced a collection of exciting changes to content production and delivery, with the Internet as its fundamental pillar. Knowledge management in successful esports organizations can be associated with their sustainability, continuity, and achievement of long-lasting competitive results in this industry. From a descriptive standpoint, this paper aims to analyze the determinants that have advanced the esports industry, especially in Spain. To achieve this goal, a SWOT analysis is carried out to highlight the keys that have developed this industry. This research contributes to studying the economic impact and the strategies organizations should follow to guarantee their future. Recommendations for both the industry and public administrations are further discussed.

Organizational Capabilities for Family Firm Sustainability: The Role of Knowledge Accumulation and Family Essence

While prior studies recognize the importance of organizational capabilities for family firm sustainability, current research has still failed to empirically identify the role of different types of knowledge accumulation with regard to these organizational capabilities. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory, the main goal of this paper is to address this research gap and to explore the relationships between both internal and external knowledge accumulation, and ordinary organizational capabilities. This research also contributes to analyzing the complex effect of the family firm essence, influenced by both family involvement and generational involvement levels, as an antecedent of internal and external knowledge accumulation. Our analysis of 102 non-listed Spanish family firms shows that the family firm essence, which is influenced by the family involvement, strengthens only the internal knowledge accumulation but not the external one. Furthermore, our study also reveals that both internal and knowledge accumulation are positively related to ordinary capabilities.

A Systematic Literature Review on Sustainability in Family Firms

In this study, we explore the research published from 2015 to 2020 on the importance of family firms (FFs) to sustainability. Our results come from a content analysis of 28 studies on this topic. Further, they deal with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry in Italy and Spain. These studies mainly follow a quantitative approach with data from a survey. This study’s main contribution regards the identification of three sorts of aspects associated to sustainability in FFs which match the three pillars of the triple bottom line approach that supports sustainable business development: social inclusion, economic development, and environmental protection. Our findings show that the family’s religiosity, reputation, and image play relevant roles in the FFs’ adoption of sustainable practices. Moreover, the CEO and their successor’s choices also have consequences for sustainability. These studies demonstrate how the family’s control, its values, and the industry influence the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. FFs go green by adopting eco-innovation to adapt to the constantly changing environment and market pressures. We acknowledge the limitations of the study. We offer advice to colleagues when developing future futures studies to address the influence of cultural differences between FFs and non-FFs and suggest they perform comparative analyses. This research could lead to further investigation of the effects of other variables that may influence sustainability in the context of FFs.

The Influence of Female Directors and Institutional Pressures on Corporate Social Responsibility in Family Firms in Latin America

This paper has two main aims. Firstly, we examine whether, given a critical mass of female board members, their presence has a different effect on the firm’s CSR practices according to its family or non-family nature. We then consider whether the moderating role of the institutional environment in Latin America enhances the role of female directors in influencing the board’s attitude towards CSR strategies. The results obtained—from a sample of 22,958 observations, corresponding to an unbalanced data panel of 5124 companies for the period 2010–2016—confirm our hypothesis and also highlight the existence of type I (organisational) and type II (institutional) compensation effects, which reduce or eliminate differences between family and non-family firms, whether or not they are located in Latin American countries.