The Contribution of Family Businessesto Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

The aim of this study is to review the body of literature on the contribution of family businesses to economic growth. The Scopus database was used to conduct the bibliometric analysis of the topic under discussion. The sample procedure was completed using PRISMA. VOSviewer software was used to go through 598 publications. This way, the network’s growth, the most active contributing agents, the intellectual structure’s background, the most popular topic, and the research gap for further study were all exposed. We noticed that the Scopus database began to include publications of family business research in 1998. The terms “family businesses,”“entrepreneurship,” sustainable development, and “economic growth” have been used often. The density map displays recent themes such as family businesses, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and economic growth. Also, it was found that the Sustainability (Switzerland) journal had the most articles overall. However, the Journal of Financial Economics was the top source, receiving more citations overall. Furthermore, the five top-ranked contributing nations in family businesses are the USA, the UK, China, Spain, and Italy. Therefore, research gaps have been presented. Researchers will learn from the findings regarding the implications for the past, present, and future. There are several restrictions on this study pertinent to the bibliometric methods’ shortcomings. One of the limitations was that the synonyms used in the search query were not exhaustive, so it excluded other documents that could be used in this research.