Are family firms fit for innovation? Towards an agenda for empirical research

Based on a comprehensive literature review, we seek to understand the readiness and ability of family firms to innovate and track the innovativeness of family businesses back to their characteristics as a basis for future empirical research. For this, we contrast the characteristics of family firms with the premises of innovation. The resulting profile of fit and misfit allows for the identification of aspects that both promote and hinder innovation in family firms. The identified aspects are condensed to a model which may be used to structure future empirical research on innovation in family firms.