Family business scholarship has produced rich theory on succession, governance, and socioemotional wealth, yet founders, successors, advisors, and board members still struggle to translate that knowledge into practice. This chapter investigates the gap between the practical relevance family business research claims and the usefulness practitioners actually experience. Rather than treating practical implications as a routine addition to the end of empirical papers, it proposes four criteria for evaluating whether research produces genuinely useful knowledge: actor-specificity, problem-orientation, explanatory grounding, and conditional applicability. It further argues that the field should be organized around its stakeholders (founders, successors, non-family managers, advisors, board members, and policymakers) rather than conventional topics such as succession or governance, since usefulness depends on who is meant to act on the knowledge produced. Applied to three illustrative studies, the framework shows that rigorous research does not necessarily produce useful knowledge: some studies generate actionable guidance, while others, however conceptually rich, remain difficult to act on. The chapter closes by asking why some family business concepts (such as socioemotional wealth and generational brokerage) have influenced management thinking well beyond the field, and what it would take to produce that kind of contribution more deliberately.
Knowledge for Whom? Evaluating Practical Usefulness in Family Business Research
De Massis, A.
;Magrelli, V.
;Vazzoler, I.
;Cellini, R.
In corso di stampa
Abstract
Family business scholarship has produced rich theory on succession, governance, and socioemotional wealth, yet founders, successors, advisors, and board members still struggle to translate that knowledge into practice. This chapter investigates the gap between the practical relevance family business research claims and the usefulness practitioners actually experience. Rather than treating practical implications as a routine addition to the end of empirical papers, it proposes four criteria for evaluating whether research produces genuinely useful knowledge: actor-specificity, problem-orientation, explanatory grounding, and conditional applicability. It further argues that the field should be organized around its stakeholders (founders, successors, non-family managers, advisors, board members, and policymakers) rather than conventional topics such as succession or governance, since usefulness depends on who is meant to act on the knowledge produced. Applied to three illustrative studies, the framework shows that rigorous research does not necessarily produce useful knowledge: some studies generate actionable guidance, while others, however conceptually rich, remain difficult to act on. The chapter closes by asking why some family business concepts (such as socioemotional wealth and generational brokerage) have influenced management thinking well beyond the field, and what it would take to produce that kind of contribution more deliberately.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
