This book has benefited from the work of several family business scholars who wrote excellent review articles and books. The following is not an exhaustive list covering all family business research; however, by reviewing the following, readers seeking more information on family businesses can find a significant amount of information.
Books
• Danny Miller and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller’s Managing for the Long Run: Lessons in Competitive Advantage From Great Family Businesses (2005).This book is an excellent example of the positives of family businesses. By studying excellent family businesses, many of them over 100 years old, the authors were able to define what the excellent companies did that made them so much more successful than their nonfamily competitors.
• Ernesto Poza wrote the definitive textbook on family business. Simply titled Family Business (2013), it is now in its fourth edition. The book is used by many university-based family business centers and by professors teaching family business courses. Professor Poza has created case studies for students or family business members to work on together.
• Gregg McCann is the author of When Your Parents Sign Your Paycheck: Finding Career Success Inside or Outside the Family Business (2007). The book is an excellent tool for the future generations of a family business to evaluate who they are as a person, their goals and objectives, and whether or not they should enter the family business.
• Kelin E. Gersick, John A. Davis, Marion McCallom Hampton, and Ican Lansberg wrote Generation to Generation: Life Cycles of the Family Business (1997). A classic within family business studies, this book is an excellent read to help understand the various problems and issues associated with the different generations and stages of the family business.
• Keeping the Family Business Healthy (1987) by John Ward is a family business classic from one of the pioneers in family business research.
• Cultural Change in Family Firms (1986) by W. Gibb Dyer Jr. is another classic from another family business pioneer.
• Working With the Ones You Love (1990) by Dennis Jaffe was written from a family therapy perspective.
• Perpetuating the Family Business: 50 Lessons Learned From Long-Lasting Successful Families in Business (2004) by John Ward is an excellent book full of pearls of wisdom.
• Entrepreneurial Family Firms (2010) by Frank Hoy and Pramodita Sharma presents the entrepreneurial nature of family businesses from start-up to growth and maturity. Discussion questions and learning exercises are included.
• The History of Family Firms (2003) by Andrea Colli provides an excellent overview of the history of family business internationally from 1850 to 2000.
• Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World’s Greatest Family Businesses (2006) was written by a historian and economics professor but for a general audience. David Landes presents fascinating information on well-known family firms throughout history such as the Rothschilds, the Morgans, the Rockefellers, the Guggenheims, the Shlumbergers, Ford, Agnelli, and others.
• Family Wars (2008) by Grant Gordon and Nigel Nicholson is an entertaining and often salacious book concerning 24 well-known family businesses and their conflicts.
• Beer Wars (2016) by Frances Stroh chronicles her life as a fourth generation family member of the Stroh Beer Company. At one time listed as one of the richest families in the country, it is a tale of poor succession and bad decision making.
• In the style of Family Wars, The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty (2007) by Julia Flynn Siler chronicles the history of the pioneering family of the Napa Valley wine industry. It reads like a novel and will give anyone pause about going public, even when the family has kept majority control of the stock.
• Handbook of Research on Family Business (2006), edited by Panikkos Zata Poutziouris, Kosmas X. Smyrnios, and Sabine B. Klein, contains 33 chapters written by different authors who are all academics in family business.
• Handbook of Research on Family Business, Second Edition (2013), edited by Kosmas Smyrnios, Panikkos Zata Poutziouris, and Sanjay Goel.
• The Sage Handbook of Family Business. (2014), edited by Leif Melin, Mattias Nordqvist, and Pramadita Sharma. This book has 35 chapters written by family business scholars.
Magazines
• Family Business Magazine is the only publication specifically targeted for family business owners. Published quarterly, its articles and columns answer everyday issues and problems for family firms. Success tips of family firms are also discussed. Every year it profiles the oldest family businesses, as well as the largest family businesses in the world. Family business research is summarized and made applicable for families to utilize in their own business. Published for over 20 years, it is a valuable resource for family business owners and the consultants who service them.
• Tharawat Magazine is targeted for the specific issues and opportunities of Arabian family businesses in the Middle East as well as internationally.
Journals
By far, the number one academic journal within the family business area is the Family Business Review published by the Family Firm Institute. The second journal in order of number of published family business studies is Entrepreneurial Theory and Practice, followed by the Journal of Business Venturing and the Journal of Small Business Management. These journals account for the vast majority of all peer-reviewed family business articles. Recently, two new journals specifically focusing on family business were created: The Journal of Family Business Strategy and the Journal of Family Business Management (launched in 2011). These new journals attest to the increasing interest of business researchers and the importance of family business.