Freeing the shackles of family business ownership

Copyright © 2002 Family Firm Institute, Inc.Ownership and management succession are recognized as defining processes for family businesses worldwide. Through the generations, as the family tree spreads, shareholdings become more dispersed, with no guarantee that all family shareholders will have the same degree of commitment to, and interest in, the family business. This paper discusses factors influencing the outcome of external and internal challenges to ownership of two interrelated Australian family businesses—one in its fifth generation, the other in its third. It concludes with guidelines to allow for effective and timely ownership transfer for those wishing to realize capital or retain control of their inherited investment.Jill Thoma

Experiencing Family Business Creation: Differences between Founders, Nonfamily Managers, and Founders of Nonfamily Firms

An experiential perspective for examining family business creation is introduced. As a lived experience, the family firm generates a cumulative series of interdependent events that takes on properties rooted in affect. The family business is a context that enables unscripted temporal performances by founders. Characteristics of the venture creation experience are examined, and underlying dimensions are proposed and empirically investigated. Building on social capital theory, differences in experiences between founders of family businesses, nonfamily managers, and founders of nonfamily ventures are explored. These differences are argued to have important implications for decision making and ongoing dynamics within the family firm. © 2010 Baylor University