Obstacles and prospers of family businesses in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A systematic literature review from the last two decades.

Abstract

The problem of family businesses in Saudi Arabia is noteworthy due to the large scope of family enterprises in Arab countries. Most organizations established in the Arab world are either state-owned or family owned. Many of these companies were formed by forefathering merchant families that dealt in vital ports along the Gulf and Red Sea coastlines. The current study's primary aim was to determine the challenges and benefits of family business success in Saudi Arabia. The purpose is to discover relevant literature on this critical issue to understand the barriers to the growing family businesses in Saudi Arabia and the potential advantages of family enterprises to the country's economy. The current study used the PRISMA statement 2020 to include and exclude records from the well-known databases Scopus and Web of Science to include high-quality documents. Additionally, the documents were examined via content analysis to determine the classifications of the study. VOS Viewer software analyzes the published literature' content—data clusters created on the text established to group the related ideas. The results indicate that three main themes were identified during the key term's occurrence research: entrepreneurship, family business, and performance. The findings of the study shows that family businesses are an essential aspect of the Saudi economy, contributing heavily to it. Such firms have lately received attention because of their critical role and contribution to job creation and employment, as well as the promotion and encouragement of entrepreneurship in their operations. Furthermore, results showed that it is commonly accepted that the involvement of a family in the business differentiates the family business. It is recommended that family companies be distinguished by their behaviour, which is based on the firm's objective, vision, and mission.