This systematic literature review examines the fragmented field of corporate share pledging, synthesizing its determinants, managerial responses, and consequences within the Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes (ADO) framework. Following PRISMA guidelines, we analyze 96 peer-reviewed articles from 19 Scopus-indexed journals spanning China, Taiwan, India, and the United States. The review reveals three cross-cutting patterns: institutional context determines whether pledging signals confidence or distress; governance mechanisms deter pledging entry but fail to constrain post-pledging opportunism; and firms strategically bifurcate stakeholder treatment along lines of external visibility. A pronounced methodological gradient characterizes the evidence base: 86
This study presents a comprehensive literature review of how resilience is conceptualized and studied in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business. It adopts a systematic literature review combined with bibliometric analysis to identify and integrate six distinct but interrelated strands of research. Based on this synthesis, we propose an integrative framework for resilience research in entrepreneurship and small business, situating the six research streams across three levels of analysis (individual, organizational, contextual) and three ontological positions of resilience (antecedent, process, outcome). Rather than assuming a single universal route, the proposed model provides a coherent and multidimensional structure that enables comparison of existing studies and enhances conceptual clarity. An emerging agenda for future research highlights a scarcity of cross-level models, empirical neglect of diverse resilience pathways, and a lack of geographical and institutional diversity in research contexts. Addressing these gaps requires more comparative and longitudinal research with greater methodological plurality. This review encourages the field to move beyond definitional debates towards questions of how, when, and at what level resilience is conceptualized, and how it is empirically captured across various contextual settings. Future research should focus on clear positioning within the matrix of ontological positions and levels of analysis, as well as adopting more comparative approaches and empirical depth. This will benefit the field more than continued emphasis on conceptual novelty.
Despite the fact that the survival of family businesses depends on successful generational transitions, the complexity of how family business members reconcile internal self-definition with conflicting relational and organizational demands remains conceptually underdeveloped. This review systematically examines individual-level identity research within the context of family businesses, addressing a field long dominated by collective and system-level perspectives. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of 42 purposefully sampled publications, the review reveals that while identity has become a central topic in family business research, it remains conceptually fragmented and theoretically dispersed. Three main patterns emerge: the dominance of system-oriented perspectives, the fragmentation of role-based identity constructs, and the neglect of temporal and developmental dynamics. The synthesis demonstrates that individual identity is often treated as a derivative of collective meanings rather than as an active, evolving process of self-definition. Building on these patterns and integrating insights from Social Identity Theory, the review develops an integrative process model that positions individual identity as continuously enacted through the interplay of salient systemic structures, multiple role identities, and transitions over time, with identity work as the connecting mechanism. The model consolidates the three patterns into a set of propositions and distinguishes what the literature establishes from the mechanisms it leaves underexplored. By moving from problematization toward an integrative conceptual contribution, the review provides a foundation for more dynamic, micro-level theorizing and a concrete agenda for future research in family business.
Although investor contribution is central to impact investing, research offers limited and fragmented evidence on whether and how investors can influence company-level social and environmental outcomes. This review addresses two related research questions: Which mechanisms can investors use to contribute to company-level impact and how do these mechanisms differ in their investor impact potential? The review synthesizes and evaluates the literature on the different impact mechanisms that investors deploy to generate company-level impact. Additionally, the review introduces the concept of investor impact potential and examines the direct and indirect pathways through which such mechanisms may influence company-level impact and evaluates their relative impact potential. The review finds that impact potential varies considerably across mechanisms depending on the pathways through which they operate and the conditions under which they are deployed. It also identifies possible future research avenues. In particular, the indirect effects of investor impact mechanisms remain largely underexplored andthe impact potential of secondary market investments is still uncertain. By integrating and evaluating the existing literature, the paper provides a conceptual model for understanding investor contribution and identifies research priorities for future studies on impact investing.
