Abstract It has been almost 20 years since socioemotional wealth (SEW) emerged as one of the main paradigms in family business research. From its inception this theory has been widely used to study a variety of phenomena unique to family firms yet there is limited understanding of what SEW is and how it works. Using the wisdom of accumulated research, we delve into the scholarly debate surrounding SEW as a dominant yet controversial paradigm within the family business field. We critically assess the existing knowledge on SEW with the aim of reexamining its core assumptions and existing limitations. Furthermore, we incorporate insights from 330 scholarly articles that have been published after SEW was first introduced in 2007 to explore its origins and implicit assumptions. We examine the often‐ambiguous results of SEW research and the oversimplified portrayal of family firms as ‘irrational’ or ‘risk‐averse’. We highlight critical, unclear areas in the SEW's body of work to help guide future SEW research in the coming decades.
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