REMINDER: Entrepreneurial Families and Family Firms (ERD)

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development: An International Journal
Special Issue on: "Entrepreneurial Families and Family Firms"
Guest editors:
Leif Melin and Mattias Nordqvist
Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership - CeFEO
Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

It is widely acknowledged that firms owned by families constitute the majority of firms in most economies and regions throughout the world. As the recognition of their economic importance has grown so has research on family firms. So far, however, most scholarly attention has been devoted to the unique challenges regarding issues such as the definition, performance, succession and governance of family firms. With the exception of a few special issues in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Venturing and some sporadic contributions over the last 15 years, surprisingly little attention has been directed to entrepreneurship in the context of families and family firms.

The purpose of this special issue is to present research that addresses the role of families and family firms in entrepreneurial processes. The aim is to attract high quality papers that can contribute significantly to our knowledge about the entrepreneurial activities of families and in family firms. Different levels of analysis are welcome: individual, group, organizational, regional and national. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

* Entrepreneurial activities in family firms
* The role of family for supporting and financing new ventures
* The family as a local context of specific values, norms and networks and how these may facilitate or constrain entrepreneurial activities
* How the owner-family maintains and transmits an entrepreneurial spirit across generations
* The family institution as a promoter or barrier to regional and national entrepreneurial growth
* Historical accounts of the entrepreneurial role of families in the emergence of industries and enterprising regions
* Processes and outcomes of corporate entrepreneurship in different types of family firms
* The family firm as metaphor for overlapping territories (e.g. the family, the firm and the ownership; or the public and the private), and its role for entrepreneurship
* The role of the emerging institutionalization of the family firm for its entrepreneurial capacity

Papers can use a wide range of theoretical frameworks. Different methodologies are welcomed including conceptual papers and various types of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Papers using innovative theories and research designs are especially encouraged.

Submissions
The special issue is linked to the 3rd EIASM Workshop on Family Firm Management Research, hosted by Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership at Jönköping International Business School in Sweden, June 3-5, 2007. We welcome papers for the workshop that are potential contributions to the ERD Special Issue. The EIASM Workshop offers a possibility to receive initial feedback on a paper before submitting it to the Special Issue. However, presenting the paper at the workshop is not a requirement for being considered for the Special Issue. More information about the workshop will be available from September 2006 at www.cefeo.se and www.eaism.org.

To be considered for publication in the special issue, manuscript must be received by September 24, 2007. Manuscripts should be submitted to the guest editors (leif.melin at ihh.hj.se or mattias.nordqvist at ihh.hj.se). The intention is to publish 4-6 articles in the special issue. Submissions will be subject to the same review procedure as normally practiced by ERD, with the addition of the comments from the guest editors. The special issue will be published during 2008. Details concerning ERD's publication process, evaluation criteria and style guide for authors are available online on the journal's website (see
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/08985626.asp).