Family Ownership and M&As: A Systematic Review of the Last Two Decades

Strategic decision-making in family firms tends to prioritize the maintenance of family control and long-term investments relative to short-term opportunities. At the same time, however, family firms usually demonstrate a low appetite for risk. In view of its multifaceted and contradictory value as a means for corporate growth and as a driver of corporate risk, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been at the core of multiple scholarly conversations on family firms. This study offers a systematic literature review of the last two decades of academic studies on M&As in the context of family firms.