Internationalization of Family Business Groups: Content Analysis of the Literature and a Synthesis Model

Abstract

Family business groups are dominant economic actors in emerging economies and play an important role in economic development and globalization efforts of their countries. This study reviews the literature on internationalization of family business groups by conducting a content analysis on 80 articles published in selected categories of SSCI journals between 2000 and 2015.  Each article was coded along six dimensions and a model synthesizing the past findings was developed. Gaps in the literature were identified and avenues for further research were proposed, pointing out to variables and theories that may be considered.