Diagnosing capabilities in family firms: An overview of visual research methods and suggestions for future applications

• Competence diagnostics is critical to ensure the success of family firms.
• Visual research methods can assist competence diagnostics in family firms.
• We classify available methods for competence visualization in family firms.
• We report on our experience of using competence visualization in an action research mode.
• We provide suggestions for future applications of visual research methods in family firms.

Family firms often develop unique capabilities over time, but these organizational competencies are difficult to identify, isolate and describe independently of the key individuals in the family firm. In this article, we provide examples and an overview of research methods that can be used to identify and visualize organizational competencies in family firms. We report from pilot applications of such visual competence diagnostics in an action research mode. We structure our article as follows: We first show the relevance of the competence visualization topic for family firms. In a second step, we classify available methods for competence visualization in a simple framework. In a third step, we report on our experience on researching a family firm with the help of visual competence diagnostics methods. We conclude the article with implications for family firm researchers and practitioners and provide a brief outlook on visual research methods and their role in better understanding family firms.