Past, present and future of family firms and their sustainability developments: a text-mining approach

Purpose This paper examines a decade of research on the correlation between sustainability and family-owned businesses. It explores the critical aspects of sustainability and how they impact family ownership, pinpoints gaps in the existing literature and outlines potential research areas for the future. Design/methodology/approach This article examines the research on sustainability in family firms (FF) over the past decade by analysing 162 relevant articles from Web of Science and Scopus. Through a text-mining approach utilising latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), latent topics were extracted from the literature and thoroughly analysed. Findings The study identifies eight topics associated with family businesses and their sustainability efforts, offering insights into critical areas of research and the interactions between sustainability and family businesses. Research limitations/implications The study results are essential for FF and sustainability literature. They suggest eight topics related to sustainability practices, which are transversal to all companies and of interest to their stakeholders. Practical implications The current paper allows researchers to analyse the topics addressed in depth. Managers can obtain relevant information that may encourage them to invest in sustainability and reduce information asymmetry and regulators can improve current and future guidelines. Social implications Promoting FF’s consistent adoption of sustainable practices is imperative. Given their pivotal role in the business market, it is crucial to effectively communicate this commitment to the general public, regulators and investors. Underscoring the critical role of sustainability in attaining long-term success becomes essential for these firms. Originality/value The article stands out for its innovative approach. It focuses on family businesses and uses text-mining methods to analyse the literature on sustainability, thus filling a gap in existing research.