The digitalization of family firms: a research agenda

Currently, digitalization is a hot topic in popular media. While family firms represent most firms worldwide, their specific opportunities and challenges in digitalization have not yet received much research attention. As argued in this chapter, such research is necessary in order to advance our understanding of contemporary family firms and enable us to better advise family firms in mastering digitalization processes. The authors offer some initial survey evidence from Iceland and Ireland on the digitalization of family firms. As this evidence suggests, family firms are somewhat reluctant to embrace digitalization. At this point, it is only possible to theorize why this is the case, reinforcing a call for more research on the specifics of digitalization in family firms.