Practice-based Research in Family Business

Abstract

Research concerning family business, from our perspective, is often limited by the theoretical paradigms that the researchers examine or use in their work. From the vantage point of the sociology of knowledge, Thomas Kuhn (1962) popularized the notion of “paradigms” within theoretical and scientific communities. Paradigms impose a specific view of the world onto the topics that are studied. Like “Schroedinger's Cat,” the theory used changes the “world” that is being investigated. As Kuhn pointed out, revolutions in thinking occur most frequently from “outside” the theoretical community that is committed to specific paradigms.

Citation

Fowler, D.R. (2010), "Practice-based Research in Family Business", Stewart, A., Lumpkin, G.T. and Katz, J.A. (Ed.) Entrepreneurship and Family Business (Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence and Growth, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 337-341. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1074-7540(2010)0000012017