Socioemotional wealth of family firms: the theoretical perspective and challenges

Using the socioemotional wealth perspective has resulted in significant advances in the understanding of family firms since this model was proposed in 2007. It is considered the most challenging theoretical framework for these organisations developed in recent years. Based on a systematic literature review from the Web of Science, 120 articles published from 2007 to 2018 were reviewed. The results show that an increasing number of works based on socioemotional wealth have been published to respond to research questions on various topics regarding family businesses. The citations of these articles have also increased greatly, confirming the pervasive influence this perspective has had. This paper explains the principles behind the socioemotional wealth perspective and how it has been used in a number of empirical and theoretical studies. It also proposes an initial discussion of two research questions on a new topic where this perspective has potential to close gaps in existing research.