Editorial

Preconceptions, Lessons Learned, and Other Changes: Three Editors’ Journeys

Pramodita Sharma, Dean Shepherd and D. Ray Bagby

Retiring editors of three journals (FBR, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, and Journal of Business Venturing) reflect on their preconceptions about journal publishing as they came into the job, lessons learned along the way, and the changes they have observed in their fields. The editorial ends with some thoughts on their expectations for the future of entrepreneurship and family business studies.

Articles

Family Constitutions and Business Performance: Moderating Factors

Rocio Arteaga, Susana Menéndez-Requejo

Research Questions:

• • How do family constitutions influence family firms’ business performance?

• How does family firm heterogeneity, in terms of family versus non-family CEO, multiple owners, generation of family firm, and firm size, moderate the relationship between family constitutions and family firm’s business performance?

Moving Beyond Socioemotional Wealth: Toward a Normative Theory of Decision-making in Family Business

Scott Newbert, Justin B. Craig

Research Questions:

• • How can socio-economic theories inform socioemotional wealth approaches?

• • How can stakeholder theories inform socioemotional wealth approaches?

• How do Adam Smith’s seminal writings help better understand contemporary challenges facing business-owning families?

Coexisting Agency and Stewardship Governance in Family Firms: An Empirical Investigation of Individual-Level and Firm-Level Effects

Kristen Madison, Franz W. Kellermanns, Timothy P. Munynon

Research Question:

• What are the behavioral and performance implications of coexisting agency and stewardship governance in family firms?

Financing Decisions in Family Businesses: A Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field

Anneleen Michiels, Vincent Molly

Research Question:

• • What do we know about financing decisions in family firms?

• What are some of the promising directions for future research examining financing decisions in family firms?

Hail…and Farewell!

With the December issue of FBR, we note the changing of the guard from Pramodita Sharma, editor since 2008, to Tyge Payne, whose tenure begins on January 1, 2018.

The editor of the journal sets the bar for publishing research in the field of family business for both scholars and practitioners. As Pramodita says in her essay in this issue, “The journey is the destination, as we embark on the next chapters of our professional lives.” We thank her for her high standards, intelligent dialogue, and exemplary work ethic over the past nine years…and we look forward to Tyge’s building on the foundation that Pramodita and previous editors have created.