A methodological guide to advance family business innovation research

While the increasing global competition is forcing every firm to innovate in order to thrive, such need is particularly challenging for family firms. Scholars have been increasingly examining innovation management in this idiosyncratic context, unveiling underlying dynamics and distinctive performance. Nevertheless, they keep adopting traditional methods, limiting methodological pluralism and the benefits that more recent or less conventional methodological advancement would instead allow to develop. In this chapter we first provide an overview of the main methodological approaches adopted so far in the family business innovation research. We then present two new methodological avenues - namely, narratives in naturalistic approaches (grounded theory and ethnographies) and social network analysis - that can be particularly promising to advance the field by contributing to enhance a dialogue among the plurality of points of view. In so doing, we also set up an agenda for a deeper and broader understanding of family business innovation management.