Dr. Llanos-Contreras, Orlando

Research surrounding the strategic value of the reputation and identity of a family firm is still an incipient topic and there is not absolute clarity about the response the different interest groups could have when these elements are communicated to them. Starting from a systematic review of the literature of Web of Science, 56 articles published between 2000 and 2020 were analyzed. The results show a growing number of articles based on the reputation and transmission of the family identity of firms. The cites in this articles have also shown important growth, confirming the relevance this topic has had. This work provides a review of the current state and evolution of the literature surrounding this topic, discusses the different lines of research related to the reputation and transfer of family identity, and finally identifies gaps in the research that can orient the development of future work.

Branding and reputation plays an important role in determining firm behaviour and outcomes. These well-known marketing concepts have attracted attention of family firm scholars as well. However, despite the significant growth in family firm literature over the last two decades, the application of marketing theories and concepts in family firm context is limited. Thus, there is an urgent need for a better understanding of reputation, branding, communication, and marketing perspectives in family firms. The goal of this special issue is to enhance our understanding of marketing strategies in family firms. This special issue features 5 articles that represents the work of 12 scholars from five different countries.

Understanding how family firms can use their family image to their advantage in communication strategies is an opportunity for business continuity. This study identifies the effects of family hotels' corporate brand strategy through radio advertising on customer perceptions and attitudes using family image communication literature and radio advertising research. Online experiment using radio ads from these hotels and a survey of 1002 participants from Chile and Spain were conducted. The results suggest that strategies improving the firm's ability to communicate the family image results in better consumer response in terms of expectation, perceived quality, visit intention, and willingness to pay more. We conclude that radio ads are an effective channel for communicating family firm images. Managers can take advantage of monetizing the benefits of family firm images through radio ads.

Family business owners are crucial in building personal relationships with customers and in supporting marketing strategies that aim to develop brand equity for the firm. Through the lenses of job demands-resources theory, this research examines how family business owners’ time in servicing customers produces a chain of positive and negative effects that ultimately impacts brand equity. Because family businesses depend heavily on owners’ motivation and ability to multitask, their effort in dedicating time to serve consumers is limited and is expected to produce work overload. This burden harms the effectiveness in delivering personalized services to custom-ers. However, if family businesses nurture expressions of citizenship behaviors in employees, the negative effect of work overload on delivering personalized services is reduced. Therefore, collective organizational citizenship behavior will act as a buffer to limit the negative effects of owners’ job demands in delivering a personalized service. Collective organizational citizenship behavior is capable of energizing everyone in the family business, including family business owners, for them to continue to service customers in a person-alized way, and at the same time develop brand equity. Implications for family business strategies are discussed based on our findings