۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Sociology of families

۳٫ Sociology of value and evaluation

۴٫ Conclusion

Appendix A. Supplementary data

References

Abstract

This article critiques several taken-for-granted assumptions in family business research. We recommend the use of sociological theories to problematize the phenomenon of family business and to push beyond dichotomies in the field. To begin, we complicate the very definition of family—implicitly defined in most family business research as a heterosexual, conjugal family—by discussing socio-legal, socio-biological, and role-based ways of defining “families.” Next, we suggest critical ways to research value and worth beyond the financial wealthsocioemotional wealth (SEW) trade-off, by considering major themes in the sociology of value and evaluation (SVE), including: the intergenerational transmission of various forms of capital, conflict over equivalent systems of accounts, and the blending of the intimate and the economic. The groundwork presented here through a focus on the family, provides important theoretically complex questions to help launch transformative research to move the field of family business forward.

Introduction

Research on family firms has been stymied by a narrow understanding of what constitutes a family and by a limited theoretical palate for exploring notions of value and worth. First, although the definition of family business is an on-going conversation in the field, the concept of “the family” has seen limited debate. Scholars typically take for granted that a family is an opposite-sex, married couple, living with their children under the same roof (see Stewart, 2003, 2010, 2014 for exceptions). This heteronormative perspective fails to account for the wide array of family arrangements in contemporary society, and limits opportunity for a more inclusive and empirically interesting collection of firms to study. Second, research on family business is dominated by a few theoretical frameworks that can be counted on one hand (Chrisman, Kellermanns, Chan, & Liano, 2010; Chua, Chrisman, & Steier, 2003). One of these concepts, socioemotional wealth (SEW) (Gómez-Mejía, Haynes, Núñez-nickel, Jacobson, & Moyano-Fuentes, 2007), describes organizational behavior according to trade-offs between financial and emotional wealth motivations (Vazquez & Rocha, 2018). This distinction suggests artificial boundaries around ideas of value and restricts understanding of the way worth is evaluated in different types of relationships. With limited perspectives employed, our understanding of critical areas of inquiry in the field are significantly constricted, resulting in only a narrow consideration of families and of family business behavior.