Family businesses and entrepreneurial ecosystems: A systematic review of inputs, process, and outcomes

Abstract This article aims to provide an overview of family firms and entrepreneurial ecosystems regarding their current trends and future research directions. A systematic literature review was carried out on 37 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection databases up to December 2025. By carrying out a coding procedure and thematic approach, we blend the input-process-outcome model with three levels of analysis (i.e., individual, family, and firm). Findings reveal that family firms shape and are conditioned by entrepreneurial ecosystems. At the same time, resource deployment and embeddedness foster knowledge transfer and regional resilience, thus corroborating the co-evolutionary relationship between family firms and entrepreneurial ecosystems. The contribution of this work is threefold: (i) an integrated theory-driven conceptual model; (ii) an inductive thematic map grounded in coded outcomes; and (iii) a future research agenda steering scholars towards novel research directions.