Kinship and family businesses on the move: A review and a research agenda

What has the anthropological concept kinship to offer to research on family business and business families? This is the question we will address in this chapter. Building on the idea of kinship as interpersonal ties grounded in relatedness the chapter will discuss the merits of employing kinship vis-à-vis the more conventional concept of family. We argue that, while focusing on the sociocultural dynamics, meanings, and manifestations of relatedness in context, a kinship lens is particularly suitable to effectuate an analytic shift from "family business" to "business families". We subsequently show how the use of kinship as core concept and lens can break through some fixtures in the field of family business research, namely: the overarching idea of the nuclear family, the dominance of research based on western family firms, the core focus on the business (and in extension the use of business and management theories), and finally the use of the business or firm as the main unit of analysis. In doing so, we engage with recent discussion in family business and business family research. Throughout the chapter we will suggest new research directions.