Developing the genealogy of family business internationalization literature: Review and research agenda

The paper aims to offer a review of the Internationalization of Family Business (IFB) literature to build up its genealogy. Through the employment of a bibliometric analysis on 189 papers published in the last 30 years, we identify the ‘fathers’ – the most relevant papers in the IFB field, the ‘ancestors’ – the papers on which the fathers have been built on, the ‘descendants’ – the latest papers and discussed topics, offering possible hints about future research topics. Results derive from a big database and outline the most critical research topics, their theoretical bases, and the most recent areas of investigation. We aim to integrate and extend earlier reviews by investigating the theoretical foundations and research fronts of the field, improving the academic debate with an additional comprehension of the origins of its knowledge structure and contemporary developments.