Family Business Research Productivity Ranking

Family businesses are the most prevalent form of business around the world. Published annually, the Texas State University Family Business Research Productivity Ranking provides insight into the universities and scholars at the forefront of family business research.

To create the Texas State University Family Business Research Productivity Rankings, a methodology was followed that aligns with other well-respected academic rankings.¹ Specifically, the rankings are based on the collective number of articles published during the most recent five-year period (2019-2023) in the top three academic journals dedicated to exclusively publishing family business research. These journals, which serve as the field's reference point, are listed below in order of their 2023 five-year impact factor.²

• Family Business Review (FBR; 5-Year Impact Factor: 11.7)
• Journal of Family Business Strategy (JFBS; 5-Year Impact Factor: 8.8)
• Journal of Family Business Management (JFBM; 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.6)

The rankings are based on the five-year impact factor for each journal and the number of articles published in the given timeframe. Each journal was searched using Scopus³ and cross-checked, when necessary, with the respective journal’s website. Articles published in each journal from 2019 through 2023 were identified. Editorials, commentaries, special issue introductions, retractions, and other published works are not included. Information on each article was downloaded and examined. Articles must be assigned a volume and issue number in the respective journal to be included.

For the institutional ranking, all counts are at the university level, meaning all departments or other units within a given institution are included. Only the first-listed (primary) affiliation of each author on a given publication is counted for the institutional ranking. If two or more researchers from the same institution are listed as authors of an article, the institution is only counted once. Data are not adjusted for the faculty size of a given institution.

To determine the ranking of individual authors, a count was made of all authors with at least one article published in at least one of the aforementioned journals. Data were manually cross-checked to ensure accuracy. For example, in instances where a variation of an author's name was listed (e.g., "John Jones" versus "John X. Jones"), the records were merged only after a manual confirmation that the author was the same individual.

Of note, this ranking intentionally focuses on scholarly research productivity within the three most prominent journals dedicated to exclusively publishing research on family business. The intention of the ranking is to identify thought leaders in family business research and institutions where family business research is active. The ranking should not be considered the sole criterion for evaluating any university, organization, author, or scholarly contribution.

¹ Examples of similar ranking approaches include the Global Entrepreneurship Research Productivity Rankings by Texas Christian University and the Sport Management Research Contribution Ranking by the University of North Texas. 
² The source of each journal's impact factor is the Journal Citation Reports™ published by Clarivate. 
³ All databases were searched in Scopus.