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This perspective article highlights the significance of systems-theoretical approaches within family business research. Extant systems-theoretical literature in the field of family business research is reviewed to outline potential research gaps and avenues. The article highlights the fundamental differences between organisational decision communication and intimate family communication. At the same time, it shows that both organisations and families as addressable social systems that may be characterised by the specific ways in which these systems refer to and manage expectations represented by the function systems of society. The article demonstrates how the key family business research areas of boundary management, succession planning, and family-business paradoxes could benefit from leveraging systems theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business family members face challenges related to exposure to diverse role expectations and systems logics, the management of which often results in situations of high complexity, dilemmas, and paradoxes. To address these issues, in this paper we combine key insights from social systems theory with systemic family coaching tools such as "internal maps," the "expectation carrousel," and the "tetralemma." In drawing on an illustrative example from a family business succession planning context, we demonstrate how systemic approaches may help business family members to (a) creatively reflect on both the personal and interpersonal expectations they are confronted with and (b) manage issues of decision‐making in dilemmatic or paradoxical situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The black letter law in the U.S. is that money damages are the preferred remedy for contract breach and that specific performance is reserved for extraordinary circumstances. Contract theory tells us that default rules generally reflect what a majority of contracting parties would agree to had they considered the matter. But do contracting parties agree with the law's preference for money damages over specific performance? In a dataset of more than 1,000 M&A contracts, we find that in over 80% of transactions, parties choose specific performance as their preferred remedy. Using interviews with senior M&A lawyers, we seek to unpack the reasons why parties are contracting around the law's distaste for specific performance and the default rule of money damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]