The goal of the FOBI grant program has been to support the creation of knowledge in the family business field. Since 2001, grants have been awarded to over 65 scholars around the world. Of these, 49% have produced research that has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Family Business Review, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and the Journal of Family Business Strategy. This body of work is presented below with grants organized into relevant topical categories.

Marketing

Two grants have been awarded to study family business within the accounting area between the years of 2001 and 2019. Of these grants, one has yielded a published paper.

ABSTRACT
Family firms are distinguished theoretically from nonfamily firms due to their pursuit of unique, family-related aspirations and goals. The pursuit of these aspirations and goals leads many family firms to define success or failure in terms of a broader set of outcomes than nonfamily firms. Despite this, family firm research has generally taken a constricted view of family firm outcomes by concentrating on narrowly defined financial performance as measured by accounting and/or market-based indicators. We contend that this somewhat myopic focus has slowed the field’s development to some degree, by constraining our ability to test its fundamental tenets. To address this, we draw on several disciplines to systematically order family firm outcomes within a family firm(s) outcomes model that encompasses both financial and nonfinancial dimensions. While financial performance is important in research and practice, herein we refer to both financial and nonfinancial outcomes and explain how these outcomes map on the family unit and the family firm. Furthermore, we suggest measures that can be used and explain how the model can be applied when researchers select financial and nonfinancial outcomes important to family members as the family firm’s success or failure is gauged.

Five grants have been awarded to study family business within the finance area between the years of 2001 and 2019. Of these grants, two have yielded published papers. 

ABSTRACT
Las empresas familiares (EF) son la forma más predominante de organización empresarial en todo el mundo, y contribuyen ampliamente a la creación de riqueza mundial (IFERA, 2003). Las investigaciones sobre la EF son impulsadas por la creencia de que la participación familiar en las empresas influye significativamente en los procesos de organización y de política corporativa, lo que hace a las EF teóricamente distintas de sus contrapartes no familiares (Chrisman et al., 2005; Chua et al., 1999). Las EF en la mayoría de los países del mundo juegan un papel fundamental en el desarrollo económico y social (Shanker & Astrachan, 1996; Gersick et al., 1997; Astrachan & Shanker, 2003). En el contexto colombiano, las EF representan el 70% de las empresas del país (Superintendencia de Sociedades, 2006), aportan el 70 % de los empleos de las empresas del sector productivo y contribuyen con más del 50% del Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) (Cala, 2005).

ABSTRACT
This article empirically investigates the competitiveness and stability of family-owned firms relative to firms owned by diverse shareholders. Founding families are present in about one-third of the S&P 500-the sample of this study. Data gathered over the 1992-2002 period confirm that family firms tend to experience higher employment and revenue growth over time and are more profitable. Regression analysis also supports that firm performance improves when founding family members are involved in management. Although evidence on the relative stability in employment among family firms over the long run is tenuous, data from the most recent recession support the role that founding families play in maintaining employment stability during temporary market downturns.

Seven grants have been awarded to study family business within the marketing discipline between the years of 2001 and 2019. Of these seven grants, three yielded published papers.

ABSTRACT
Many vibrant neighborhoods in West Michigan have large, growing Hispanic populations. In fact, Hispanics are one of the fastest growing segments of West Michigan’s population, due to high immigration and birth rates. According to the U.S. Census, over 94,000 Hispanics lived in Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, and Allegan Counties in 2006 — a little more than 7% of the total population — and that population has doubled since 1994. But the population of Hispanic individuals is not all that is growing. The number and variety of Hispanic-owned or Hispanic-focused businesses in Kent County is also increasing, evidenced by block after block of colorful retail storefronts on south Grandville Avenue (a.k.a. “Cesar E. Chávez Boulevard” for the legendary leader of migrant workers), on the west end of Bridge Street, and on South Division to 44th Street. There you will find an array of stores and services, from accountants and beauty shops to restaurants and supermarkets, most of which appear to be targeted to Spanish-speaking customers.

Twenty-three grants have been awarded to study family business within the organizational behavior area between the years of 2001 and 2019. Of these grants, eleven have yielded published papers. 

ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurial legacies play an important role in transgenerational entrepreneurship, yet little is known about their nature and development. Through a multilayered analysis of narratives drawn from three generations of a single business family, we document that entrepreneurial legacies feature both stable and fluid elements, and that forward-looking components in family storytelling—which we refer to as “anticipated futures”—affect this dynamic character. We further show how such narratives can prompt, sustain, and disrupt entrepreneurship across multiple generations. Our findings offer insights that refine our understanding of entrepreneurial legacies beyond mere projections of the past through secondhand imprinting.

ABSTRACT
Familiness, the unique bundle of resources associated with the family’s involvement in the firm, affects firm outcomes; yet, how familiness affects the internal dynamics of the family firm to yield outcomes, such as innovation,remains unclear. To this end, we use a dynamic capability perspective to propose that familiness affects absorptive capacity, a knowledge-specific dynamic capability, through which the firm’s innovation outcomes are influenced. Further, we acknowledge how these relationships are altered by the involvement of nonfamily members in the family firm. The conceptual model offered highlights the role of absorptive capacity in understanding how familiness affects innovation outcomes and elucidates the heterogeneity across family firms that results from nonfamily member involvement.

ABSTRACT
Drawing on the transgenerational entrepreneurship perspective, we employ a multiple case study approach to investigate why multigenerational family firms innovate. The data collection process drew upon five in-depth cases comprising 42 semi-structured interviews, 25 participant observations, and several thousand pages of historical data dating from 1916 to 2017. We find patterns on how the firms’ long-term view—embracing both the past and the future—influences the innovation motives of these firms. Specifically, we identify three innovation patterns: conserving, persisting and legacy-building. We introduce a set of propositions and a framework linking long-term orientation dimensions to innovation motives and innovation outcomes. Our research thus contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of innovation behavior in family firms.