Family governance – Literature review and the development of a conceptual model

•Findings of 19 papers on family governance are consolidated.•Results show a high heterogeneity in family governance-related topics.•A theoretical basis is still widely lacking.•A conceptual model with propositions presents the main results.

A growing number of articles emphasise the importance of establishing an effective system of family governance, and a synthesis of the existing literature on family governance mechanisms (henceforth FGM) seems timely and relevant. Therefore, by focusing on three FGM (family meetings, family councils and family constitutions), this systematic literature review sheds light on the factors associated with family governance. Altogether, eight family governance-related factors could be identified, which were then grouped into antecedents, correlates and outcomes and consequently consolidated into a conceptual model. The findings reveal substantial heterogeneity in family governance-related topics, ambiguity regarding the causality between FGM and related factors, a disregard of theoretical considerations and an underrepresentation of qualitative research strategies in contemporary family governance research. The article concludes with an extensive discussion of potential avenues for future research.