Introduction

Abstract

Although family firms are the dominant type of business in the world (Morck & Yeung, 2003; Sharma, 2004), they have received rather little attention in the innovation literature (Beck et al., 2011; De Massis et al., 2012). And yet, as for any business, much of its prospects to grow and, ultimately, to survive depend on the firm’s ability to innovate. In fact, family firm innovation is very exceptional and distinctive because the firm needs to include the innovation preferences that emanate from the interaction of family members, owners and the business system (Taguiri & Davies, 1982; Gersick et al., 1997).