EDITOR'S NOTES.

The first issue of this two-part series received much praise. Never before have I received so many notes and calls from first-time cover-to-cover readers. I am sure you will find this issue as enlightening and useful. My heartfelt thanks go to all the authors who contributed to these two very special issues. Readers should also know that because of space limitations, several articles could not be included and will appear as invited commentaries in 1999 and 2000.

It's hard to imagine that just ten and a half years ago the first issue was being received by the acolytes of family business and that Ivan Lansberg was scouring the world for adequate publishable material. The journal and the field have come a long way, and we should all take a moment to reflect on the field's tremendous growth and the role the Family Firm Institute and its executive directors and presidents have played. Thanks go to these tireless yeomen, including Rod Correll, Judy Green, Barbara Hollander, Steve Schwartz, Craig Aronoff, Kathy Wiseman, Mike Cohn, and president Francois de Visscher.

We also need to consider where the field is headed. Through Family Business Review we have sought to increase awareness and sensitivity of those who serve family businesses. Yet that information and innovation may not be sufficient to protect our growing yet fragile field. Standards of service and peer review are lacking. All new fields at some point face a period when they are vulnerable to criticism for not assuring quality of service. Much like the peer-review process for articles published here, perhaps it is time for a similar program for service. In this way, standards can be applied to service providers.

In the first article of this special issue, Gibb Dyer and Marcelino Sanchez, of Brigham Young University, trace the development of the field through its research and writing. They innovatively apply their analysis in a first attempt to use the evolution of the field to create a guide for future research and practice. They note that the number of research articles has increased, and they call for more collaboration between academics and practitioners as well as more case studies and cross-cultural work that could prove useful for developing increasingly better theory and enhance practice.

Although Dyer and Sanchez found that succession and family dynamics have dominated the contents of Family Business Review, Karen Vinton, formerly of Montana State University, explores a topic that has led many to fear family business: nepotism. In her careful look at the positive and negative aspects of nepotism, Vinton provides much insight into how to manage nepotism and its consequences, including the development of policies to govern the variety of issues nepotism poses.

John Ward and Christina Dolan, of Loyola University Chicago, use empirical research to understand a phenomenon Ward identified well over a decade ago: the stages of ownership that family businesses pass through as the businesses age and the ownership groups grow. Their research sheds light on the prevalence of various ownership configurations and some of the critical issues they confront.

Ernesto Poza and Theodore Alfred, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and Sandra Johnson, of the University of Saint Thomas in Minneapolis, make a notable research contribution with a report of their multiyear, multifaceted research program. The family business programs at both their universities not only educate their members, but also conduct research and facilitate change ...