Failures In Family Firms And Enterprising Families: A Literature Review And Agenda For Future Research

Continuity of business ownership has long been a key topic and marker of success in the family business field. However, we know relatively little about failure. Far from being the opposite of continuity and due to the overlap of business and family systems, failures in family firms and enterprising families are complex, multi-faceted, and thus, difficult to study. Through a systematic literature review of 94 articles, we expand the current conceptualization of failure in family firms and enterprising families by identifying business- and family-related origins and outcomes of failure. We discuss the importance of disentangling events from processes, internal versus external perspectives on the study of failure, as well as the multiple outcomes and effects of failure that can impact family and business systems. We conclude with suggestions for future research and propose research designs that can help further understand failures in family firms and enterprising families.