Rimpa Pal and Dr. Bhaskar Bhowmick
Family business research has experienced significant growth and diversification in the past decades. In this Bibliometric study, we aimed to map the trends and identify the future research directions. We analysed 8169 documents (1957 to 2025) from the Scopus and Web of Science database by using Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny. It showed that the publications increased annually at a rate of 7.1% while 10244 authors contributed to this domain. The first surge happened in 1988 (Family Business Review published), followed by 2011 (Journal of Family Business Management, and Journal of Family Business Strategy published). These three journals are the top three sources in this field with more than 1300 articles (from Bradford Law Analysis). We have noticed three streams-- (i) nature, structure, and transgenerational succession (1950s to mid-2000s), (ii) family influence and socio-emotional wealth (SEW) (mid-2000s to present), (iii) governance, social responsibility, gender (2010s to present). De Massis, Kellermanns, Chrisman, Calabro and Miller are the most relevant authors, both in terms of number of articles and impact, for their contributions in theorizing the family businesses and understanding the effects of contemporary events. In contrast, Astrachan, Sharma, Gomez-Mejia and Daspit also made impactful contributions in the field of family influence and socio-emotional wealth, despite their comparatively smaller number of articles. Initially, the USA and the European nations led the research, in the last 15 years, the interest is growing in China, Taiwan, and the UAE as well due to the growing recognition of family businesses in these economies. SEW, ownership, business performance, management, and corporate governance are the well-researched areas, but these topics are still relevant for micro-level studies. The new research can be done on gender diversity, financial wealth, intergenerational transmission, corporate social responsibility, and the top leadership.
