Abstract
Over the past few years, companies have increasingly begun to consider inclusion and gender diversity as a source of competitive advantage and in particular as a key factor for growth. In recent years, the available data show that the involvement of women in the governance of family businesses is more pronounced than in non-family businesses. Although prior literature has addressed the topics of gender diversity and performance in large and medium enterprises, less attention has been posed to family SMEs and on the evolution of studies that analyze such relationships.
According to such evidence, this paper seeks to grasp the connections between gender diversity in family SMEs and performance. Bibliometric analysis has been conducted on 125 articles published during the period 1999–2021. The keywords analysis reveals the existence of three independent clusters of research which can be traced back to the following three topics: Corporate Governance and Performance (Green Cluster), Entrepreneurship (Blue Cluster), and Strategy (Red Cluster). In each of these clusters, it is possible to identify key aspects of women's profile within family SMEs. This study offers valuable results both from the academic and business perspective. The bibliometric analysis clearly illustrates the different stages of this field of study, as well as the emerging lines of research, which can be studied in greater depth.
References
Adams, R. B., & Ferreira, D. (2009). Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance. Journal of financial economics, 94(2), 291-309.
Ajaz, A., Shenbei, Z., & Sarfraz, M. (2020). Delineating the influence of boardroom gender diversity on corporate social responsibility, financial performance, and reputation. LogForum, 16(1).
Alkhaled, S., & Berglund, K. (2018). ‘And now I’m free’: Women’s empowerment and emancipation through entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and Sweden. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 30(7-8), 877-900.
Arzubiaga, U., Iturralde, T., Maseda, A., & Kotlar, J. (2018). Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in family SMEs: the moderating effects of family, women, and strategic involvement in the board of directors. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 14(1), 217-244.
Bannò, M., D'Allura, G. M., Dawson, A., Torchia, M., & Audretsch, D. (2020). Advancing diversity research in family business. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 100414.
Barrett, M., & Moores, K. (2009). Women in family business leadership roles: daughters on the stage. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Brundin, E., Samuelsson, E. F., & Melin, L. (2014). Family ownership logic: Framing the core characteristics of family businesses. Journal of Management and Organization, 20(1), 6.
Campbell, K., & Mínguez-Vera, A. (2008). Gender diversity in the boardroom and firm financial performance. Journal of business ethics, 83(3), 435-451.
Carter, D. A., Simkins, B. J., & Simpson, W. G. (2003). Corporate governance, board diversity, and firm value. Financial review, 38(1), 33-53
Cassia, L., De Massis, A., & Giudici, F. (2011). I family business e la successione padre-figlia nella cultura italiana: un caso di studio. Piccola Impresa/Small Business, (1).
Cesaroni, F. M., Sentuti, A., & Pediconi, M. G. (2021). Fading and transformation: how a woman entrepreneur's multiple identities interact throughout her life. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Chamochumbi Diaz, G. D., Cesaroni, F. M., & Sentuti, A. (2018). Quali fattori aziendali influenzano la presenza delle donne nella governance delle imprese familiari? Un'analisi empirica nel Centro Italia.
Chua, J. H., Chrisman, J. J., & Sharma, P. (1999). Defining the family business by behavior. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 23(4), 19-39
Constantinidis, C., & Cornet, A. (2008). Daughters taking over the family business: A gender analysis. In ISBE Conference 2008 Proceedings
Cox, T. (1994). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research and practice. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Cruz, C., Justo, R., & De Castro, J. O. (2012). Does family employment enhance MSEs performance?: Integrating socioemotional wealth and family embeddedness perspectives. Journal of business venturing, 27(1), 62-76.
Cumming, D., Leung, T. Y., & Rui, O. (2015). Gender diversity and securities fraud. Academy of management Journal, 58(5), 1572-1593.
D'Allura, G. M., Bannò, M., & Trento, S. (2019). Do Ceo’s demographic characteristics affect family firms’ innovation?. Piccola Impresa/Small Business, (2).
Darko, J., Aribi, Z. A., & Uzonwanne, G. C. (2016). Corporate governance: the impact of director and board structure, ownership structure and corporate control on the performance of listed companies on the Ghana stock exchange. Corporate Governance.
Darmadi, S. (2013). Do women in top management affect firm performance? Evidence from Indonesia. Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society.
Diaz, G. D. C., Cesaroni, F. M., & Sentuti, A. (2018). What factors influence the presence of women in family business governance?. Piccola Impresa/Small Business, (3).
Duppati, G., Rao, N. V., Matlani, N., Scrimgeour, F., & Patnaik, D. (2020). Gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from India and Singapore. Applied Economics, 52(14), 1553-1565.
Fairlie, R. W., & Robb, A. M. (2009). Gender differences in business performance: evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners survey. Small Business Economics, 33(4), 375-395.
Fernando, G. D., Jain, S. S., & Tripathy, A. (2020). This cloud has a silver lining: Gender diversity, managerial ability, and firm performance. Journal of Business Research, 117, 484-496.
Flood, R. L., & Romm, N. R. (1996). Diversity management. In Critical Systems Thinking (pp. 81-92). Springer, Boston, MA.
Floris, M., Dettori, A., & Dessì, C. (2020). Innovation within tradition: Interesting insights from two small family bakeries. Piccola Impresa/Small Business, (1).
Gnan, L., Montemerlo, D., & Huse, M. (2015). Governance systems in family SMEs: The substitution effects between family councils and corporate governance mechanisms. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(2), 355-381.
Haberman, H., & Danes, S. M. (2007). Father-daughter and father-son family business management transfer comparison: Family FIRO model application. Family Business Review, 20(2), 163-184.
Hamilton, E. (2006). Whose story is it anyway? Narrative accounts of the role of women in founding and establishing family businesses. International Small Business Journal, 24(3), 253-271.
Ji, L., Liu, C., Huang, L., & Huang, G. (2018). The evolution of Resources Conservation and Recycling over the past 30 years: A bibliometric overview. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 134, 34-43.
Kakabadse, N. K., Figueira, C., Nicolopoulou, K., Hong Yang, J., Kakabadse, A. P., & Özbilgin, M. F. (2015). Gender diversity and board performance: Women's experiences and perspectives. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 265-281.
Lazzeretti, L., Capone, F., & Innocenti, N. (2017). Exploring the intellectual structure of creative economy research and local economic development: a co-citation analysis. European Planning Studies, 25(10), 1693-1713.
Lorbiecki, A., & Jack, G. (2000). Critical turns in the evolution of diversity management. British journal of management, 11, S17-S31.
Marinova, J., Plantenga, J., & Remery, C. (2016). Gender diversity and firm performance: Evidence from Dutch and Danish boardrooms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(15), 1777-1790.
Martinez Jimenez, R. (2009). Research on women in family firms: Current status and future directions. Family Business Review, 22(1), 53-64.
Martinez-Jimenez, R., Hernández-Ortiz, M. J., & Fernández, A. I. C. (2020). Gender diversity influence on board effectiveness and business performance. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society.
Maseda, A., Iturralde, T., Aparicio, G., Boulkeroua, L., & Cooper, S. (2019). Family board ownership, generational involvement and performance in family SMEs. European Journal of Management and Business Economics.
McKinsey, 2020. Report Women in the Workplace 2020,
McNerney, D. (1994). The bottom-line value of diversity. HR Focus, 71(5), 22-23.
Mor Barak, M. E., Lizano, E. L., Kim, A., Duan, L., Rhee, M. K., Hsiao, H. Y., & Brimhall, K. C. (2016). The promise of diversity management for climate of inclusion: A state-of-the-art review and meta-analysis. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 40(4), 305-333.
Moreno-Gómez, J., Lafuente, E., & Vaillant, Y. (2018). Gender diversity in the board, women’s leadership and business performance. Gender in Management: An International Journal.
Naciti, V. (2019). Corporate governance and board of directors: The effect of a board composition on firm sustainability performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 237, 117727.
Naciti, V., Cesaroni, F., & Pulejo, L. (2021). Corporate governance and sustainability: a review of the existing literature. Journal of Management and Governance, 1-20.
Nair, S. R. (2020). The link between women entrepreneurship, innovation and stakeholder engagement: A review. Journal of Business Research, 119, 283-290
Naveed, K., Voinea, C. L., Ali, Z., Rauf, F., & Fratostiteanu, C. (2021). Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Social Performance in Different Industry Groups: Evidence from China. Sustainability, 13(6), 3142.
Nekhili, M., Chakroun, H., & Chtioui, T. (2018). Women’s leadership and firm performance: Family versus nonfamily firms. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(2), 291-316.
Nelson, T., & Constantinidis, C. (2017). Sex and gender in family business succession research: A review and forward agenda from a social construction perspective. Family Business Review, 30(3), 219-241.
Overbeke, K. K., Bilimoria, D., & Perelli, S. (2013). The dearth of daughter successors in family businesses: Gendered norms, blindness to possibility, and invisibility. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 4(3), 201-212.
Ozbilgin, M., & Tatli, A. (2008). Global diversity management: An evidence based approach. Macmillan International Higher Education
Pulejo, L. (2011). La gender equality nell'economia dell'azienda: strategie e strumenti di mainstreaming di genere per lo sviluppo sostenibile. La gender equality nell'economia dell'azienda, 1-219.
Ramadani, V., Hisrich, R. D., Dana, L. P., Palalic, R., & Panthi, L. (2019). Beekeeping as a family artisan entrepreneurship business. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Ratten, V., Dana, L. P., & Ramadani, V. (Eds.). (2017). Women Entrepreneurship in Family Business. Routledge.
Sharma, P. (2004). An overview of the field of family business studies: Current status and directions for the future. Family business review, 17(1), 1-36.
Sundaramurthy, C., & Kreiner, G. E. (2008). Governing by managing identity boundaries: The case of family businesses. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(3), 415-436.
Testa, S., Massa, S., Martini, A., & Appio, F. P. (2020). Social media-based innovation: A review of trends and a research agenda. Information & Management, 57(3), 103196.
Thomas, D. A., & Ely, R. J. (1996). Making differences matter. Harvard Business Review, 74(5).
Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2017). Citation-based clustering of publications using CitNetExplorer and VOSviewer. Scientometrics, 111(2), 1053-1070.
Vera, C. F., & Dean, M. A. (2005). An examination of the challenges daughters face in family business succession. Family Business Review, 18(4), 321-345.
Waltman, L., Van Eck, N. J., & Noyons, E. C. (2010). A unified approach to mapping and clustering of bibliometric networks. Journal of informetrics, 4(4), 629-635.
Xian, H., Jiang, N., & McAdam, M. (2021). Negotiating the female successor–leader role within family business succession in China. International Small Business Journal, 39(2), 157-183.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2022 Piccola Impresa / Small Business