Marketing and family firms: Theoretical roots, research trajectories, and themes

Abstract

Marketing in a family firm context has been increasingly researched over the past years. This study reviews 104 publications at the intersection of marketing and family firms to identify their theoretical roots, research trajectories, and themes and to propose new research avenues. For this, we integrated three bibliometric analyses: co-citation analysis, historical direct citation analysis, and co-occurrence analysis. We also conducted a qualitative review to further examine the obtained quantitative results. The findings show that the theoretical roots in the marketing and family firm research domain are characterized by two groups of cited references: those representing the earlier (before 2010) and later (after 2012) periods. The two main research trajectories identified are developed under the influence of two pioneering studies. Moreover, five distinct research themes are identified: brand and image, resources and performance, reputation, market orientation, and marketing strategy of family firms. Our results also highlight avenues for further research.