Critical studies in Family Business: What are we afraid of?:Family Business Debates: Multidimensional Perspectives Across Countries, Continents and Geo-political Frontiers

There is a growing interest on how critical perspectives can help us understand family businesses. Current literature suggest that critical reflection is needed in aspects such as conflict, fear and emptions. In this chapter, we argue that fear, which is conceptualised as both an inhibitor and a motivator for business, plays a significant role in drawing out the emotions of family business experiences. To advance understanding we review recent conversations that can help us understand better the role of fear, how does this impact on resilience and how much impact do feelings and emotions have in family firms. In our review, we argue that perspectives that focus on specific tangible resources (e.g. financial) are limited to explain how families in business may deal with fear. A critical perspective suggest that fear may be best addressed through relational resources and that aspects such as mental health may provide contrasting perspectives to those currently used in the family business field to explain how families cope with crisis. The relevance of this chapter lies in contextualising critical approaches to analyse overlooked aspects of family firms. In doing so we provide insight fore researchers, policy makers, and those operating family businesses alike