It is generally accepted that a family's Involvement In the business makes the family business unique; but the literature continues to have difficulty defining the family business. We argue for a distinction between theoretical and operational definitions. A theoretical definition must identify the esence that distinguishes the family business from other businesses. It is the standard against which operational definitions must be measured. We propose a theoretical definition based on behavior as the essence of a family business. Our conceptual analysis shows that most of the operational definitions based on the components of family involvement overlap with our theoretical definition. Our empirical results suggest, however, that the components of family involvement typically used in operational definitions are weak predictors of Intentions and, therefore, are not always reliable for distinguishing family businesses from non-family ones.

555This article provides a review of important trends in the strategic management approach to studying family firms: convergence in definitions, accumulating evidence that family involvement may affect performance, and the emergence of agency theory and the resourcebased view of the firm as the leading theoretical perspectives. We conclude by discussing directions for future research and other promising approaches to inform the inquiry concerning family business.

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Based on a review of 217 refereed articles on family business studies, the literature is organized according to its focus on individual, interpersonal or group, organizational, and societal levels of analyses. An assessment of the status of our current understanding at each level is provided and directions for future research are suggested. A discussion of definitional issues, bases of distinctiveness, and family firm performance is used to help understand the domain or scope of the field. Methodological issues and strategies aimed to enhance the pace at which the field achieves a distinctive legitimate place in organizational studies are presented.

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Although successor commitment toward family business has been identified as a key desirable attribute, commitment has been treated as a unidimensional construct in family business research. Drawing on the organizational commitment literature, we propose four bases of successor commitment to family firm-affective (based on perceived desire), normative (based on perceived sense of obligation), calculative (based on perceived opportunity costs involved), and imperative (based on perceived need). A model of antecedents and expected behavioral outcomes of each of these bases of commitment isdeveloped. Related propositions are presented, as are the contributions to the literature, research and practical implications.

Leadership succession continues to form the core of the family business literature. Numerous studies have suggested factors that influence family members' initial satisfaction with the succession process, but this body of work is highly fragmented and lacks a unifying framework. In this paper, we draw on stakeholder theory and other organizational, behavioral, and economic theories to develop a conceptual model that integrates the findings from the literature. The research and practical implications of this integrative, ready-to-test, model are discussed.