Innovation and Family Firms

This chapter aims to perform a systematic review of the most recent publications in innovation within the field of family business. A comprehensive systematic search in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science through December 2017 allowed the authors to retrieve 389 peer-reviewed articles. After careful screening, the final sample was reduced to 152 documents from 72 journals. The characteristics of the scientific journals, the diverse topics currently addressed, and the main lines of research were identified. The results revealed the existence of a highly diversified field of research with a wide variety of topics, receiving a growing interest and not limited to specialized journals nor a reduced number of researchers. All of this is indicative of an advance in the field to consolidate innovation as a high potential area of study. This allows researchers to reflect on the current status and research opportunities to contribute to the development of this field.