Family business best practices: Where from and where to?

This paper discusses the emergent family business best practice literature recognising a need to identify lessons for effective family firm governance and management that can be learned from successful, long-lasting businesses, whether family owned or otherwise. We review lessons characterized as family business best practices by a number of researchers, the established meaning and use of the concept best practice in the business excellence movement, and the critique of several aspects of that use. We also examine specific challenges the notion of family business best practice faces, and question the origin of identified practices and where they could be headed. Given the problematic nature and implications of best, we query whether the transition from lessons learned (local knowledge about what works) to best practices (universal knowledge about what works) is justifiable. Moreover, since family enterprises are as unique and idiosyncratic as the families that influence them, and the outstanding ones flout conventional management practices, we also ask whether characterizing lessons learned as best practices is either appropriate or necessary. We are led to conclude that the notion of family business best practice is fraught with enough difficulties to warrant avoiding or limiting its use.