Michael Carney

De Gruyter Handbook of Business Families - De Gruyter Handbooks in Business, Economics and Finance Michael Carney

The field of management increasingly recognizes that most firms in the world are family firms and that these entities operate differently from non-family firms on which most of our current theories of management are based. The De Gruyter Handbook of Business Families is aimed primarily at researchers and graduate-level students in the area of family business. It brings together leading academics exploring emerging research themes in family business, with special attention to drawing in new ideas from adjacent disciplines that can advance the family business field. It challenges the traditional notion of "single firm-single family" that has characterized most of the early research on family business recognizing that families may simultaneously own or control multiple businesses as well as substantial wealth beyond these firms in the form of financial and non-financial assets. This is especially clear in emerging markets, where business families practice wealth diversification through separate legal entities. It also occurs in developed markets where multi-generational entrepreneurial families establish several ventures or use their wealth from prior businesses to invest in new ones, thereby creating a situation where wealth is more diversified. This handbook will fill a gap on the family business research agenda.
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