Purpose-Our purpose is to explore the case of divorce in family business from a legal perspective. Design/methodology/approach-We rely on legal analysis and interviews with estate distribution executors to discuss problems with the legal rules and how they are practiced. Findings-Our findings show that the law is ill fitted to the situation where there is a family business included in the division of marital property. In divorce, family law dictates the division of marital property and the family business is reduced to an asset to be divided like any other. Critical issues are identified and elaborated. Research limitations/implications-Divorce and other disruptions to the family system should be considered in family business research among other threats to the business. The legal perspective on divorce in the family business offered here primarily concerns ownership issues. The impact of divorce on management is equally in need of exploration, which is our suggestion for further studies. Practical implications-Our paper illuminates in which ways the business is hampered from divorcing owners and discuss critical issues with applying family law in a family business context. Social implications-Policymakers should establish rules in which shares in an unlisted business are by default assigned to separate property until something else is contracted. Originality/value-New light is shed on the practical problems of interpreting family law in a family business context advancing our understanding of family aspects in family business research.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore individual career management by family members in the context of their family firms.Design/methodology/approachThe interpretative interview study of family members active in family businesses explores how this context affects the choice, planning, goals and development of family members' careers in their family business.FindingsThe authors find that career management in the family business setting focuses on fulfilling the family business goals rather than the personal goals of family members. Career management is rather reactive and less self-directed than current literature on career development recommends. Based on the results, the authors develop a process model for individual career management in the family business context.Originality/valueLittle is known about individual career management of family members in a family business context, as research on careers in family firms has so far focused mainly on transgenerational succession. The authors explore how in family firms, the trend towards self-directed, individual career planning is in tension with a commitment to the family business and its legacy.

Longevity is at the core of what makes family businesses special. Unlike most attempts to explain longevity that have focused primarily on the factors within a family business that lead to longevity or the factors outside of an organization’s environment, we adopt a business-history perspective that enables us to show how the interplay between the organization and its environment can help to explain family business longevity. Building on the category literature, we trace the interaction of a small Swedish fourth-generation high-quality furniture manufacturer with its category over a period of more than 120 years. We identify the internal mechanisms driving family business longevity, the external mechanisms driving category development as well as the mechanisms underlying their interaction. Specifically, we provide new insights into how agency exercised by the family business contributes to the shaping of the category they are a member of, thereby nurturing their business longevity.

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Despite several calls for more systematic research on the role of gender aspects for entrepreneurial family businesses, rather little research on such topics has been published in the leading family business journals. More research has been published in niched or lower-ranked journals as well as books. The aim of this chapter is to provide a systematic literature review of the intersection between gender and family business research published in different kinds of outlets, outlining the status quo of the discussion along different themes as well as a research agenda to help move the field forward.