Dear Colleagues,

Family businesses are the most common type of enterprise worldwide (Poza and Dauguerty, 2013; Gedajlovic et al., 2012; Masulis et al., 2011; Gómez-Mejía et al., 2007). In many economies, family businesses drive growth, well-being (Astrachan and Shanker, 2003), wealth, and even employment (Matthews et al., 2012; Fan et al., 2011; Chang et al., 2009). Given the importance of family businesses in different economies, many researchers have begun to study the operation and factors affecting the performance of family businesses (Sharma et al., 2012; Chrisman et al., 2010).

Recently, sustainability has been creating shared value and has therefore become a priority for the management of companies (Herrera-Madueño et al., 2016; Lozano et al., 2015; Kramer and Porter, 2011). Moreover, sustainability is a vital factor in achieving greater economic growth from greater social cohesion (Baviera-Puig et al., 2015).

In addition, the entrepreneurial behavior of the family business is a valuable predictor of business success (Kraus et al., 2012) because of its influence on the performance of the family business (Hernández-Perlines, et al., 2016; Miller, 1983) and its ability to create value (Huarng and Hui-Kuang, 2011) in the company. Consequently, the two previous aspects allow us to speak of sustainable entrepreneurial behavior in family businesses (Hernández-Perlines and Rung-Hoch, 2017).

Considering the characteristics of family businesses, there is an “internal” factor whose effect on performance is particularly interesting. We are referring to socioemotional wealth and its preservation. Socioemotional wealth (hereinafter SEW) has been defined by Gómez-Mejía et al. (2007, p. 106) as “the non-financial aspects of the enterprise that satisfy the emotional needs of the family, such as identity, the ability to exercise family influence and the perpetuation of the family dynasty”. For Berrone, Cruz, and Gómez-Mejía (2012), “SEW is the most important feature of the essence of a family business that separates it from other forms of organization” (p. 260). There is no doubt that SEW is a relevant aspect of specifying the identity of the “family” and even of family companies themselves (Barros, Hernangómez and Martín-Cruz, 2017) and that it affects their performance (Hernández-Perlines, Ariza-Montes and Araya-Castillo, 2019; Hernández-Perlines, Moreno-García and Yáñez-Araque, 2019; Hernández-Linares, Kellermanns, López-Fernández and Sarkar, 2019; Kallmuenzer, Strobl and Peters, 2018; Schepers, Voordeckers, Steijvers and Laveren, 2014).

In family businesses, the relationship between family and business is very important for its future survival, and we must consider the factors that determine the psychological ownership of the business (Ceja and Tàpies, 2013). In this vein, family business is defined by the values that permeate its actions. Gómez-Betancourt et al. (2012) state that the values of the founder are transferred to the family business, and these values are the essence of the family business (Tàpies, 2011). The values have different dimensions, which results in a great heterogeneity of family businesses and relations between family and business. However, what is relevant is the transmission of these values to the following generations (Tàpies, 2011), which requires a balance between the family and the family business (Lansberg and Gersick, 2016).

In this Special Issue, we call for an analysis of psychological aspects that can improve performance in family businesses in a sustainability framework, considering the new research area of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development. Among these aspects, although not exclusively, we would welcome work that analyzes sustainability, socioemotional wealth, entrepreneurial orientation, values, innovation, dynamic capabilities, gender issues, legitimacy, corporate governance, etc.

Prof. Felipe Hernández-Perlines
Prof. Antonio Ariza-Montes
Prof. Gabriele Giorgi
Guest Editors

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• Psychology of sustainability and sustainable development
• Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship
• Socioemotional wealth
• Values
• Innovation
• Entrepreneurial orientation
• Internationalization
• Generational level
• Gender
• Corporate governance
• Dynamic capabilities
• Succession
• Social responsibility