Annika Geyer aims to advance the currentunderstanding of variations in family businesses'' growth performance and toexplain their potential origins. She focuses on the respective impact of theset of relevant background factors (stemming from top executives'' individualcharacteristics as well as the given organizational and social environment) onthe firms growth performance and the underlying processes through which thisimpact is transmitted. The insights of this work constitute an essential steptowards settling the debate on how the family actually contributes to the familyfirm''s performance and hold some important implications for practitioners.