Case Studies in Family Business Research

Based on a review of 63 case studies from the family business field, the authors emphasize the potential of critical realist case studies for family business scholars. The review revealed that the positivistic case study introduced by Yin and Eisenhardt is the disciplinary convention of family business field. Since there are several events and mechanisms underspinning social phenomena, such as succession, they need to be both explanained (erklären, matching the positivist view) and understood (verstehen, matching the constructivist/interpretive view) which is the staring point of critical realism (Bhaskar, 1998; Sayer, 1992). Hence critical realis ontology can be very fruitful for future studies. In a critical realist case study, the research question addresses a research phenomenon of interest, in terms of discernible events, and asks what causes them to happen (Easton, 2010). This matches FB research that studies events, mechanisms and processes in special.