A set-theoretic analysis of the components of family involvement in publicly listed and major unlisted firms

Family firms can be thought of as heterogeneous configurations where ownership, governance, management and succession components are often intertwined. Previous works have typically used definitions of family firm based on one or more of these components. In this empirical work we seek to clarify the relationships among the components of family involvement in family firms by using a set-theoretic methodology (fs/QCA). Applying this methodology to a sample of 6611 publicly listed and major unlisted companies from 46 countries, we identified the most frequent configurations of family firms based on the components of family involvement. We present the most frequent configurations and discuss implications for empirical research and theory building on family firms.