“International Marketing in Family Business: Identity, Strategy and Growth”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “International Marketing in Family Business: Identity, Strategy and Growth”

Journal: International Marketing Review
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission deadline: 30 September 2027

This special issue focuses on how family‑owned businesses approach international marketing, examining the interplay between family identity, socioemotional wealth (SEW), and global growth strategies. It seeks to bridge the family‑business and international‑marketing literatures by exploring how cherished family goals, governance structures, and relational advantages shape branding, channel choices, communication, and performance in foreign markets.

Why this issue matters

• Family businesses are dominant players in global economies and in cross‑border trade, yet their marketing behaviour in international settings receives less attention than their financial and governance dimensions.

• The family imprint—attention to control, reputation, harmony, and legacy—strongly influences how family firms handle risk, partnerships, and brand identity when entering foreign markets, often leading to more relational, cautious, and reputation‑driven but also resilient marketing strategies.

• At the same time, family firms face tensions between tradition and modernisation, between local identity and global branding, and between personal control and professional marketing capabilities, making this a rich agenda for international‑marketing and family‑business scholars.

Core themes and topic areas

The special issue welcomes empirical, multi‑method, and theoretically grounded papers that connect family‑business characteristics to international‑marketing phenomena. Indicative themes include:

• Branding and identity in international family firms

  • How family businesses design and manage global brand architectures, position “familyness” (forging the family name, heritage, and narratives), and balance local authenticity with international consistency.

  • Under what conditions a strong family identity becomes an asset or a liability in foreign markets.

• Consumer perceptions across cultures

  • How consumers in different countries, product categories, and B2B/B2C contexts react to signals of family ownership (e.g., trust, warmth, authenticity) and how these effects are moderated by culture, risk, and digital platforms.

• International market orientation, innovation, and digital marketing

  • How family and non‑family managers differ in the use of market intelligence, analytics, and digital tools (social media, e‑commerce, personalisation) for international decisions.

  • When next‑generation family members act as catalysts for digital‑marketing transformation and how this affects export intensity, customer satisfaction, and international growth.

• Reputation, CSR, and stakeholder communication

  • How family multinationals frame CSR, community engagement, and legacy narratives in international markets and how stakeholders (consumers, employees, NGOs, communities) interpret them.

  • Whether combining family identity with CSR communication leads to a “reputational super‑additivity” or to scepticism.

• Entry modes, channels, and marketing configurations

  • How entry‑mode choices, channel structures, and reliance on family/diaspora networks affect brand consistency, service quality, and responsiveness in foreign markets.

  • How family firms overcome liability of outsidership and build presence through relational and symbolic strategies.

• Governance, professionalisation, and non‑family managers

  • How family vs. non‑family CEOs, boards, and marketing directors shape willingness to invest in new markets, digital campaigns, and brand repositioning.

  • How governance choices enable or constrain marketing experimentation and internationalisation speed.

• Cultural, institutional, and regional contingencies

  • How country‑level culture, institutional quality, and regional clusters moderate the effectiveness of family‑based international‑marketing strategies (e.g., relational marketing in emerging economies vs advanced‑economy professionalism).

• Crises, scandals, and crisis communication

  • How family‑branded multinationals communicate during crises (product recalls, ethical lapses, succession disputes) and how domestic and foreign stakeholders respond.

  • Whether distinct family‑stewardship narratives help recovery and under which cultural and media contexts.

• Methodological advancement

  • Papers that develop or apply multi‑source, multi‑level datasets, digital‑trace data (websites, social media, reviews), configurational methods (fsQCA), or natural‑experiment designs to capture nuanced family‑marketing effects in international settings.

Guest editors

• Dr. Md Imtiaz Mostafiz, University of Leicester, UK

• Dr. Qilin Hu, Loughborough University, UK

• Prof. Mat Hughes, University of Leicester, UK

Submission details

• Submission platform: Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts for International Marketing Review:
  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/imrev

• When submitting, select “International Marketing in Family Business: Identity, Strategy and Growth” from the special‑issue dropdown menu.

• The journal seeks empirical and conceptual papers with strong theoretical grounding; general literature reviews or bibliometric studies are not targeted.

• Key deadlines:

  • Submissions open: 1 March 2027

  • Submission deadline: 30 September 2027

• Follow the journal’s Author Guidelines:
  https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/imr

This special issue is ideal for international‑marketing, family‑business, brand‑management, and cross‑cultural‑consumer‑behaviour scholars who wish to explore how family identity and socioemotional wealth travel across borders and shape global brand strategies and market performance.

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