The Influence of Family Goals, Governance, and Resources on Firm Outcomes

Abstract

We briefly reflect on the theoretical contributions of the ongoing series of special issues on theories of family enterprise and discuss the contributions of each article and commentary in the current special issue. We observe that the meta–themes—the unique goals, governance, and resources of family firms—are not only primary sources of heterogeneity but key determinants of outcomes such as the continuation of family involvement, firm survival and renewal, and financial performance. We conclude that the importance and interrelationships of goals, governance, and resources suggest that a configuration approach to studying their interactions in family firms might be useful.