Agency, stewardship and the universal-family firm : a qualitative historical analysis

Drakopoulou Dodd, Sarah and Dyck, Bruno (2015) Agency, stewardship and the universal-family firm : a qualitative historical analysis. Family Business Review, 28 (4). pp. 312-331. ISSN 0894-4865 (https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486515600860)

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Abstract

This paper introduces the idea of a non-kinship-based Universal-family firm, an organizational form we developed based on interpreting historical writings in their socio-economic context. We analyzed Luke’s gospel with an eye toward drawing implications for the stewardship-agency debate in the contemporary family business literature. Our paper makes contributions at two important levels. In addition to introducing and developing theory about the Universal-family firms, we also contribute to the methodological toolkit of family business scholars by providing a template for using historical documents to challenge, enhance and develop theory.