Are Family Businesses Really Different? European Experiences from STRATOS

TLDR

The study compares 1,132 SMEs across eight European countries, contrasting family and nonfamily firms on values, attitudes, objectives, and strategic behavior. Family firms are inwardly focused, less pioneering, and strategically conservative, making them stable rather than dynamic economic actors.

Abstract

Using observations of 1,132 small- and medium-sized enterprises in eight European countries, a comparison is made of family and nonfamily businesses. The variables compared concern values and attitudes, objectives, and strategic behavior. The data reveal that family businesses are inwardly directed or closed family-related systems. Among their managers are fewer pioneers than “all-rounders” and organizers; as a consequence, their strategic behavior is rather conservative. Therefore, family businesses should be viewed as stable rather than progressive or dynamic factors of the economy.