Capturing the heterogeneity of family firms: Reviewing scales to directly measure socioemotional wealth

Socioemotional wealth (SEW) is a key concept in family business research. In this chapter, I follow recent work et al. (2012) by emphasizing the theoretical relevance of SEW; at the same time, I share concerns about conceptual and empirical issues that still need to be examined. For example, the concept still needs to be tested more directly. My first aim is to provide an overview of previously published alternatives to directly measuring SEW. This is in line with criticism of the mismatch between the theoretical construct and its empirical correlate. This debate has only recently led to the development and validation of new measures to directly grasp SEW. In this chapter, I review the recent discussion, lay out emerging possibilities of directly measuring SEW, and discuss challenges associated with using direct measures of SEW.