Family business and innovation

De Massis, Alfredo (2015) Family business and innovation. In: Concise guide to entrepreneurship, technology and innovation :. Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781783474189

Abstract

While scholars from different disciplines have amply investigated innovation management, most of the traditional literature focuses on firms where ownership and management are separate, without explicitly taking into account what happens when they are combined. Unification of ownership and control is typical of family businesses. This chapter briefly illustrates how innovation is distinctly managed in family firms and discusses the importance of a temporal perspective on family business innovation drawing largely on the findings of prior studies I conducted to show how family involvement in a business organization affects innovation inputs, activities and outputs.