Family Firm Research: The Need for a Methodological Rethink
测量了英国家族企业的规模，发现其数量重要但定义敏感，并指出双变量研究可能混淆了人口统计差异与真实差异，对政策制定者和研究者有参考价值。
The scale of family company activity in the United Kingdom was measured with regard to several family firm definitions. This study confirms that family companies are a numerically important group of businesses. Policy makers and practitioners must, however, be aware that the scale of family firm activity in any developed economy is highly sensitive to the family firm definition selected. Within a bivariate as well as multivariate statistical framework, marked demographic differences were identified between family and non-family companies with regard to several family firm definitions. We suggest that bivariate studies comparing the management practices and performance of family and non-family firms may have identified ‘demographic sample’ differences rather than ‘real’ differences. Implications for future research exploring the management and performance of family and non-family firms are discussed.