INNOVATION AND FAMILY BUSINESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Objective: Identify the factors, characteristics, strengths, challenges, and opportunities that are required in family businesses (FB) to face innovation in the digital age. Theoretical Framework: Reviewed information on the development of family businesses in the digital age and the needs for innovation. Method: An exploratory study was carried out, for the analysis and selection of information, the PRISMA method and hermeneutics were used; In addition, publications from the last five years (2019-2023) from repositories such as Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, among others, were included. Likewise, the review of 55 scientific articles has been systematized using MS Excel software. Results and discussion: The factors were trends, consumer preferences, increasing competition, internal competencies and business model knowledge. Characteristics highlighted were transgenerational entrepreneurship, values and new forms of digital integration at kinship and genealogy level. Strengths were the ethical attitude, trust, identification and involvement of family management. Challenges were the digitalization of companies, the use of ICT, unlocking the conservative mentality and the defamiliarization of the company. Research Implications: It demonstrates the need to include FBs in the economic theory for study, as well as the consideration of practical specificities for their sustainable development. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature to proceed with the innovation of a family business in the digital age, considering factors, characteristics, strengths, challenges and opportunities within an innovation ecosystem.


INTRODUCTION
Innovation and family business (FB) in the digital age is a fundamental issue for the development of society and is imposed as an aspect of constant risk management and the implementation of change processes for continuous improvement.FBs are initiators of significant ventures for developing country economies; and the digitization of information, becomes a challenge that would obviously be a strength for any organization; therefore, it The results of various studies have confirmed that business innovation in the digital era involves a process of adaptation that requires proper risk management, analysis of products and services to be offered, and knowledge of the business model and its value chain in order to be competitive in the market.

OBJECTIVES
Identify the factors, characteristics, strengths, challenges, and opportunities that are required in family businesses (FB) to face innovation in the digital age.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
FBs carry out activities that require innovation in various aspects, and one of them is the response to digitalization.This means that there is a need to study the factors, characteristics, strengths, challenges, and opportunities.In this context, managing change would be the key to success and it is necessary to identify the fundamental factors for the innovation of family businesses.For Duarte et al. (2023), experience, tacit and new knowledge, innovation, or established brand image emerged as a key response to adapt to the challenges of trends, preferences, and competitors.In that sense, Li et al. (2023) For Samara & Arenas (2017) one of the challenges is professionalism to achieve equity between family and non-family 4 employees since they have unique and distinct contributions that can become a great strength for the FB.According to Baday et al. (2021), promoting equity as a game changer will obviously require other drivers of innovation, such as internal competencies, collaboration, and public support, as well as tacit knowledge of research and development.Therefore, public support is a highly sensitive factor when state shareholding and intergenerational succession occur for the effects of innovation.They indicate that it is necessary to delimit shareholdings to achieve innovation processes as a policy inherent to management without dependence on the interests of the parties.
For Yew & Tan (2023), a factor for FB innovation is the ability of family dynasties to consider cultural norms and religion as the foundation of business ethics within the work environment.A significant example was the application of Christian ethics and the virtues of xinyong or trust, which motivated innovation at work during the Covid-19 pandemic; In that sense, trust is an important element at the ethical level; however, integration with cultural norms remains a challenge in all FB.According to Zybura et al. (2021), a specific factor within family dynasties is the succession process, the leadership of the successor the influence of knowledge or experience of the predecessor and the transfer of resources for FB innovation.In this same perspective, Somboonvechakarn et al. (2022), highlight that, in the succession process, formal and informal communication facilitates organizational innovation, social capital management, knowledge management, planning and procedures, which should raise the standard and competitiveness of FB.
The characteristics of a family business, managed by its own members are idiosyncrasy, human resources, family ownership and willingness to change, this means that digital innovation involves the management of factors such as process, product/service and business model (Tirdasari et al., 2022).
An important aspect is to analyze idiosyncrasy as a key characteristic to maintain typical family relationships and labor relations, especially in decision-making, based on which a business family model 3.0 could be proposed.This is how Kleve et al. (2020) highlight that the basic factor is the organization of consensual networks for new forms of communication, to define membership, to define hierarchies and to establish rules and/or sanctions.For James et al. (2020), networking would probably be the most important activity for innovation; however, for this innovation factor to be authentic you need to consider the design of business information across generations, cultures, and contexts.
In the same sense, the organization of networks for business means the digitization of the entire value chain to compete and, in some way, empower itself strategically, and this implies taking advantage of the policies that a country must motivate digital transformation (Dionysopoulou & Tsakopoulou, 2021).
FB innovation is directly related to the digital business model and the role of environmental dynamism, from which mediating characteristics such as knowledge exploitation, risk management and marketing capabilities are broken down (Soluk et al., 2021).
The marketing characteristics are related to the nature of the family property and the seniority of the company to communicate the brand on corporate websites and of this highlights the presence of FB (Barroso et al., 2019).However, the brand communication process, being the space that evidences the digitalization of FB, is categorized as an innovation process that has barriers such as prejudices or fears against the change of the traditional, family and/or generational (Marinho & Costa Melo, 2022).For Frank et al. (2023) there are processes of resistance to change that are possible to eliminate using entrepreneurship, decision-making capacity, and the identity of the business family.
For Ohashi et al. (2017) one of the most determining characteristics of FB is the construction of digital forms of kinship and genealogy as a dynamic to integrate not only family ties but business ties strengthened by characteristics such as feelings, stories, connections, and memories without limits, and this was evidenced by exploring the role of Japanese families in mobile social media.In this same perspective, Wei & Chen (2023) indicate that the basis of kinship and genealogy always needs an evaluation of the distribution of structural power between family and non-family executives, to facilitate spaces based on professionalism.
Another characteristic of sustaining transgenerational entrepreneurship, according to Chan (2021) is to build shared values between families in the digital age, maintaining the value of entrepreneurship constant and showing values through sustainability.
There are remarkably positive characteristics, but unwanted characteristics such as lack of leadership, reputation care, excesses in standardized visions and emotional conflicts are also evident (Lorenzo et al., 2022).There are also characteristics that are related to others that are the product of cultural values and their implications in the succession process, where they show few objective rules for succession processes and biases in decisions due to gender conditions that could limit the sustainability of the company (Anggadwita et al., 2019).For the above, Moreno-Menéndez & Casillas (2021) point out that it is probably the explanation of why family businesses tend to grow less than non-family businesses in terms of sales, but more in terms of employees.
FBs involving family management have a positive relationship with technical innovation (Islam et al., 2022).Therefore, it is a strength for innovation, The socio-emotional 6 wealth sustained by the management of values is a critical point in digital entrepreneurship while considering the capabilities or competencies that allow consolidating ties based on professionalism and avoiding bias due to familiarity (Basly & Hammouda, 2020).It is necessary to highlight socio-emotional strength and value that is built from key dimensions such as being special, tradition, relationships, and control (Browne et al., 2020).And for Gusenbauer et al. (2023) one of the strengths is the management of knowledge in a process of authentic transmission within a socio-emotional scenario that encompasses the traditional to the cultural.
FBs within a digital context need to use their strengths to achieve positioning, one of them is family ethics, supported by stakeholders, objectives, relationships, and particular practices that act as motivating forces that differ from a non-family business (Vazquez, 2018).
Strengths consolidate social capital in each FB; for example, faith or trust strengthens the establishment and sustainability of ethical standards and family values in the company (Sorenson & Milbrandt, 2023).In the same sense, Vergara et al. (2020) indicate that family dynamics are strengths to align the expectations of the family against the company; improve communication among members; consolidate common values; and promote shareholder identification.FBs need to drive digital transformation and turn their tactical actions into strategies that allow them to face unexpected situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic; in which, they maximise their strengths such as, for example, the knowledge management of young people of the third family generation to operate with greater agility in virtual environments (Union et al., 2022).This means that having unique characteristics, being systemic organizations, having formal and informal governance mechanisms and being heterogeneous, become strengths that facilitate the performance of the business family in crisis management (Calabrò et al., 2021).
Those unique characteristics that are inherent and sustained in the socio-emotional aspect of employees generate a vital strength called creativity, which is the engine that stimulates innovation management (He et al., 2022).At the hierarchical or leadership level of the FB, there are characteristics that have a positive influence such as the narcissism of the leaders of the family business, since this psychological condition encourages the constant search for innovation opportunities generating an environment of wide possibilities of business positioning (Rovelli et al., 2023).
FBs have challenges that are the result of the effects of the digital age such as: implementing the digital mindset in the company, promoting the capacity for change For Caspersz & Thomas (2015), FBs have the challenge of implementing a positive approach to lead and manage based on the development of social capital and collaborative work.
In that sense, little attention has been paid to the role of interpersonal relationships in the development of leadership skills of successors, indicating that there is a challenge to build highquality relationships of leaders through mutual respect, trust, early affiliation with the company, mentorship, and mutual obligation (Kandade et al., 2021).In relation to the previous authors, De Groot et al. (2022) indicate that the formation of social capital in business families is a fundamental challenge, seen as the need to implement family governance to improve social capital having as mediator family identity and cultural transmission mechanisms.One of the debatable challenges mentioned by Zhong et al. (2023) is the defamiliarization of the family business as an action to improve performance in innovation, based on less emotional decision-making because it sometimes drives innovation.
In some way, it seeks to unlock the conservative and traditional characteristics of FB, by addressing an apparent will-ability paradox in family business innovation (Rondi et al., 2019).
Consequently, all authors agree in one way or another that the fundamental challenge is the implementation of mechanisms to achieve the professionalization of family or non-family employees (Habba et al., 2022).FBs, like any economic activity, have profitability as a priority; and is achieved when opportunities are identified and seized; therefore, an opportunity for FBs 8 in the digital age is to increase investment in innovation driven by the demand and need for technology (Migliori et al., 2020).Another opportunity is to operate responsibly in the use of social networks, strategically leveraging family members as business contacts to consolidate business integration mechanisms (Burt et al., 2021); and for the management of networks, contact with the so-called MZ generation is a main opportunity, which is educated, globally connected and socially aware, with capacities for the management of information, knowledge and skills obtained from the online community (Kim & Kim, 2022).
Addressing the innovative activity of family businesses, with the help of statistical tools, the relationship between the family character of companies, their innovative activity and their export activity demonstrate an opportunity that is based on the possibilities of integration and mutual strengthening of innovation and export activities in parallel (Csákné et al., 2023) It is mentioned that family businesses show resistance to change and that business families seek continuous improvement, and although this generates conflicts, it should be considered as an opportunity, because it is possible to create solid links to build work environments with corporate values (Combs et al., 2020).The links that underpin change in the digital age emerge as opportunities through the assimilation of employment conditions that extend beyond company premises and diverse schedules (Hassard & Morris, 2022).From an academic point of view, FBs represent a study opportunity that can be included in the curricular plans of educational programs and, in addition, can be the subject of analysis within economic theory research in universities (Johansson et al., 2020).The review was carried out by four researchers in a rigorous, systematic, and logical way, for they read, selected and analyzed under the hermeneutic method the contributions to answer some of the research questions, which can ensure the validity and reliability of the data analysis.A table was made using Ms. Excel software, which included data such as research title (1), year (2), author (3), language (4), source of information ( 5), objective (6), main result (7), question 1(8), question 2 (9), question 3(10), question 4(11), question 5 (12), Doi (13), name of the journal ( 14) and quartile (15).Based on the ordering of the information, they proceeded to perform calculations and statistical graphs under the coding of the information.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARTICLES
The distribution of 55 articles published between 2019 and 2023 and some from other years that were relevant to the research is presented.Table 1 shows the revised information and approximately 87% are in that range of years.The quality of the research is supported because approximately 94% comes from highimpact sources and 100% is published in English.Table 3 shows the distribution of articles for review according to the research question.
For each question, at least 10 relevant articles have been found; however, for questions 3 and 4 there is more literature, and they refer to the strengths and challenges of innovation in FB.Yew et al., 2023;Chanun et al., 2022;Kleve et al., 2020;Samara et al., 2017;James et al., 2021;Kanghong et al., 2023;Yuyan et al., 2023).However, innovation factors are aimed at trends, preferences and competitors, internal competencies, collaboration and public support, as well as knowledge of research and development, process management, product/service and business models with technology management as an important factor for the digitalization of 13 the value chain.(Duarte et al., 2023;Ezgi et al., 2021;Nyayu et al., 2022;Panagiota et al., 2021).They tend to grow less than non-family in terms of sales, but more in terms of employees.
A higher percentage of ownership of family businesses as well as their income is related to brand communication.
According to table 5, we can identify the factors of the innovation of the FB and in the strictly family aspect the basic factors are family succession, changes, planning and the ability of dynasties to insert their culture and religion for the exercise of business ethics (Zybura et al., 2021;Somboonvechakarn et al., 2022;Yew & Tan, 2023;Kleve et al.,2020); and there are other internal factors such as process management, social capital, knowledge, organization, equity of family and non-family employees based on professionalism (Baday et al.,2021;Tirdasari et al., 2022;Somboonvechakarn et al., 2022;Samara & Arenas, 2017;James et al.,2021;Li et al.,2023);However, the aforementioned factors have to coincide with other more external ones such as: trends, preferences, competitors, public support and technological management, to define key areas in the management of business development based on the digitalization of the value chain.(Duarte et al.,2023;Baday et al.,2021;Dionysopoulou & Tsakopoulou, 2021).14 Table 6 identifies the strengths of family businesses and from the first aspect there is the management of intergenerational knowledge in an authentic, traditional to cultural way with socio-emotional energy (Union et al., 2022;Gusenbauer et al.2023;Browne et al., 2020) And, to this is added, the ethical attitude in cases with insertion of faith and religion that achieves socio-emotional solidity (Vazquez, 2018;Sorenson & Milbrandt, 2023;Basly & Hammouda, 2020); all of the above generates family dynamics, identification and greater creativity of employees that generates unique capabilities to sustain business in unforeseen events.(Lopez et al., 2020;Calabrò et al., 2021;He et al., 2022); however, the strengths mentioned are sometimes uncontrollable and the family relationship skews objective decisions that end up limiting the development of FB or in some strengths such as the participation of family management in property or narcissism (Islam et al., 2022;Rovelli et al., 2023) can become potential difficulties.Implement family governance to improve social capital in business families as a mechanism for cultural transmission.
Table 7 shows the contributions in relation to the challenges of FB in the digital age.
Basic innovation challenges are presented, such as the digitization of businesses, the use of the internet, the insertion of digital mentality and the use of ICT.(Union et al., 2022;Keen & France, 2022;Rashid & Ratten, 2020;Rozmi et al., 2020); and there are also more specific and complex challenges in FBs which are unlocking the conservative mindset, balanced use of emotional wealth, building strong relationships, family constitution, positive approach to leadership, and implementing family governance for family transmission (Rondi et al., 2019;Rehman et al., 2023;Kandade et al., 2021;Arteaga & Menéndez-Requejo, 2017;Caspersz & Thomas, 2015;De Groot et al., 2022).Therefore, it is demonstrated that the initial challenge for performance in FB in the digital age is the defamiliarization of business under a fundamental policy in the company is the professionalization of employees (Zhong et al., 2023;Habba et al., 2022) to coincide in decisions according to reason, actions and emotion.Table 8 shows the opportunities for FBs in the digital age.At the tactical or operational level, the need to increase investments in innovation, the construction of work environments with values, assimilation of employment modalities and the use of familiar social networks for business are identified.(Migliori et al., 2020;Combs et al., 2020;Hassard & Morris, 2022;Burt et al., 2021).At the academic level, we find a fundamental opportunity that would be the inclusion of FB within economic theory for research in universities.(Johansson et al., 2020), sustained by the human resources of the MZ generation (Kim & Kim, 2022); however, the operational or the academic is insufficient in the digital age and, as real opportunities, there is the creation of ecosystems for co-creation of value, collaborative agreements, open FBs and the linking of family value and business value (Randerson & Estrada-Robles, 2023;Csákné Filep et al., 2023;Lambrechts et al., 2023;De Groote et al., 2023).

FINAL CONSIDERATION
The study provides an overview of the factors, characteristics, strengths, challenges, and opportunities of FB in the digital age.We means that it is necessary to assess what the strengths of family businesses are, what are the innovation factors that allow establishing FB, what are the most outstanding characteristics of family businesses in the digital age, what are the challenges of family businesses in the digital age or what are the opportunities to generate family businesses in the digital age.The process of change or innovation of FB in a digital context has been addressed by different researchers with the fundamental criterion that is to increase investment in innovation driven by the demand and need for technology.
Innovation and Family Business in the Digital Age: A Systematic Literature Review ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.1 | p.1-21 | e05393 | 2024.7 management, and protecting intellectual assets, to adopt new technologies and maintain an emotionally and artificially intelligent brand (Rashid & Ratten, 2020).Union et al. (2022) mentioned that what influences the achievement of the digitalization of business is knowledge management and the acceptance of one's own capabilities.For Keen & France (2022) one of the challenges is for people of each generation to responsibly use internet access as a basic means for creating value in business; and for other authors such as Rozmi et al. (2020) the management of the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) represent a challenge internally because the characteristics of the company and the owners must be understood and, externally, due to the cost of the technology, government regulators, among others.
Another important challenge highlighted byArteaga & Menéndez-Requejo (2017) is the implementation of family governance with the purpose of improving performance and that could be enhanced by having the ability to elect a non-family CEO.ForRehman et al. (2023) a major challenge is the search for a corporate social performance based on the balance of maintaining the emotional wealth and protection of minority shareholders and the rights of the strongest shareholders of the FB.
. The possibilities of integration indicate the opportunity to implement an ecosystem approach to value creation based on collaboration, co-production and co-creation (Randerson & Estrada-Robles, 2023), and for Lambrechts et al. (2023) it is an opportunity for the expansion of open family businesses effectively determining boundaries and collaboration; and as stated by De Groote et al. (2023) it is important to leverage and link your family historical capital, your family collaborative capital and your family venture capital to achieve their full potential.
Page et al. (2021), exploratory research was developed based on the PRISMA (Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) model, in which the antecedents according to the topic were evaluated, selected, and compiled and the details are shown in Figure 1.The objective was to identify factors, characteristics, strengths, challenges, and opportunities for innovation in FB within the context of the digital age that includes all countries in the world; for this, 55 articles published in Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, ScienceDirect, Scielo and Redalyc were analyzed.Record collection took place between July 1 and August 10, 2023.Contributions that are more than five years old, redundant or those that did not answer one of the research questions were excluded.The records were selected according to the questions proposed by the researchers and the following questions were obtained: What are the innovation factors that allow FB to be established?What are the most outstanding characteristics of FB in the digital age?What are the strengths of FB?, What are the challenges of FBs in the digital age? and What are the opportunities to generate FB in the digital age?
adopted the PRISMA model to inform the systematic review and analyzed 55 articles published mainly in the last five years.Relevant findings, in terms of factors, were trends, consumer preferences, increase in competitors, internal competencies, collaboration and public support, research and development knowledge, process management and business model knowledge; The outstanding characteristics were transgenerational entrepreneurship, values, the exploitation of knowledge and new forms of digital integration at the level of kinship and genealogy; In the strengths, ethical attitude, trust, socio-emotional solidity, identification of their collaborators and the participation of family management were identified.; in the challenges demanded by the digital age were the digitization of businesses, use of the internet, digital mentality, use of ICT, unlocking of conservative mentality, balanced use of emotional wealth, construction of solid relationships, family constitution, positivity approach to leadership and implementation of family governance, defamiliarization of businesses, professionalization of employees; and the opportunities that must be taken advantage of in the digital age at an academic level are the inclusion of FB within economic theory for research in universities, the creation of ecosystems for co-creation of value, collaborative agreements, open FB and the linking of family value in business value.

Table 2
Number (%) of articles reviewed according to information source

Table 3
Number (%) of articles identified in response to a research question

Table 4
Innovation factors identified in FBs

Table 4
The factors of communication of changes by the succession as a consequence of the establishment of equity between family and non-family employees based on professionalism, management of business across generations, contexts and cultures, identifying the balance in the relationship between state shareholding and intergenerational succession.(Janet al., 2021; identifies the innovation factors in FB; On the one hand, there is family succession (successor -predecessor) that involves the transfer of resources, ability of family dynasties to integrate cultural norms and religion to exercise business ethics; and on the other hand,

Table 5
Characteristics identified in FB in the digital age

Table 6
Strengths identified in FB

Table 7
Challenges identified for FBs in the digital ageDigitalization of their businesses based on knowledge management.2022 Keen & France Optimal use of the internet and that value creation is vital Confluence of internet use and culture.2019 Rondi et al.Unlock its conservative characteristic, by addressing the an apparent willability paradox.2020 Rashid & Ratten Implement the digital mindset.Maintain emotionally and artificially intelligent brand 2023 Rehman et al.Desempeño Corporate social performance in balancing emotional wealth and shareholder protection.2015 Caspersz & Thomas Improve leadership competencies to develop positivity.2022 Habba et al.Implement mechanisms to achieve the professionalization of employees.2021 Kandade et al.Build relationships through mutual respect, trust, early affiliation with the company, mentorship and mutual obligation.

Table 8
Opportunities identified to generate FB in the digital ageGeneration of open family businesses to achieve collaborative progress.2023De Groote et al.Link family, collaborative historical capital and its family venture capital, to achieve its full potential.