Abstract

Family businesses contribute to a large portion of China’s economic development and share in an increasing number of social responsibilities. In general, Chinese family businesses (CFB) face problems similar to those of their counterparts in other parts of the world, including enterprise governance, succession, growth, and management. However, the culture and social situation in which they are embedded are different, which leads to unique phenomena and behavior in Chinese family businesses. Furthermore, due to the short history of most family firms in China, there is little experience for founding families to draw on regarding the preservation of values, culture, heritage, and legacy. Such a reality consequently brings unique opportunities and challenges for researchers interested in Chinese family businesses. Chinese scholars have done a great deal research in the field; however, due to language barriers, the most valuable and interesting Chinese studies cannot be read by researchers in the rest of the world. Therefore, this chapter, by reviewing family business research articles published in Chinese, attempts to outline the research in this field. It also attempts to answer questions such as: who is most active in the family business research field, what insights are available, what topics are the primary focus of Chinese family business research, and what makes this line of research unique.