Oh the places we (don’t) go! Over- and under-represented geographies in empirical family business research

This study maps the geographical coverage of empirical family business research to date from a context-theorizing perspective. An analysis of the countries of origin of the data used in all empirical family business studies published in ABS-ranked journals reveals stark disparities in representation, and a disproportionate geographical concentration of family business research data. Europe harbors particularly many overrepresented countries, whereas substantial parts of Africa, Latin America, and other regions are largely absent from our empirical literature. Additionally, research from underrepresented contexts that does get published is cited much less frequently in subsequent work. A more in-depth of analysis of the underrepresented data provides insights into the embeddedness of family business contexts. Implications of these findings for the cross-contextual applicability of insights developed in family business research are discussed, as are potential avenues for enhancing the inclusion and impact of research from underrepresented geographies in family business research.