Family Strategy over Generations

A business family is a special type of family, at least in our culture and age, since it is distinct from the private, nuclear family that is more typical of today’s society. History has seen considerable changes in the structure of families and households. The separation of family and commerce during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw a situation in which work “emigrated” from the family. Before, families were rather organised in economic productivity units, and survival, not relationship, was first and foremost on their minds. Nowadays, the family represents a private sphere: family is regarded as opposite to the workplace and seen as a protective retreat from the demands of society. Family life and the world of work are largely distinct from one another, with family life standing in contrast to the impersonal domain of work. However, in business families, the situation is different, and in many cases, work is still directly linked to the family. Research into family enterprises has widely tended to adopt a business management perspective and has rarely examined this particular problem in great detail. There has to date been little investigation into the business family as a specific type. Recently, the interest in integrating theories from family science into family business research has grown. The importance of the family to the business is, however, repeatedly emphasised. The family is seen as a special resource for the business, giving it a particular competitive advantage, although mention is also made of the worst-case scenario in which the family has the potential to disrupt, or even destroy, the business as a result of internal conflict. Both material and immaterial values are at stake here: “The biggest value destroyer in family business is discord” (Hennerkes & Kirchdörfer, 2015, p. 62).