Building bridges between gender and family business literature to advance women’s empowerment
ISSN: 1754-2413
Article publication date: 20 April 2023
Issue publication date: 16 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to underline the importance of addressing gender issues in family firms. It reinvigorates research in this field by revealing its current state, identifying research gaps and suggesting future agendas.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric approach using a co-word analysis of 376 papers from the Web of Science database and their 885 keywords was performed to reveal the thematic structure of gender and family firm research, research topics, associations among them and their evolution over the last 30 years (1991–2021).
Findings
This review provides an extensive literature base and suggests research topics that facilitate the adoption of a gendered lens in family firm literature and business practice.
Research limitations/implications
This review demonstrates how gender issues are intertwined with management, leadership and family firm approaches. Our observations inform scholars, policymakers and practitioners on the need to integrate gender issues into organizational culture and to connect empowerment strategies with the sociocultural environment.
Originality/value
This study shows the need to address women’s empowerment in business, considering different sociocultural contexts in addition to a Western focus. It also calls for embracing gender and feminist perspectives in research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank the three anonymous referees for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this article, although any errors are entirely our own responsibility. They also highly appreciate the institutional support received from the Family Business Centre at the UPV/EHU in collaboration with the DFB/BFA and from the Consolidated Research Group (Code OE7) at the University of Vigo.
Funding: This research was partially supported by the Consolidated Research Group funding from the Basque Government under the grant number IT1641-22. It also received financial support from the Spanish MCIU/AEI/FEDER-UE under the grant number RTI2018-097579-B-100. Amaia Maseda also received a Salvador de Madariaga grant (PRX19/00636) from the Spanish MECD for a research stay at the University of Edinburgh Business School (UK).
Declaration of interest: The authors declare that they have not conflict of interest.
Citation
Maseda, A., Iturralde, T., Aparicio, G. and Cooper, S.Y. (2023), "Building bridges between gender and family business literature to advance women’s empowerment", Gender in Management, Vol. 38 No. 8, pp. 1029-1074. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-02-2022-0056
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited