Family businesses are a crucial area of business operations, where complexity and interdependence significantly influence the outcome. Understanding the definition of a family business, its scope, and the importance of family businesses enables an understanding of their role in the global economy. The types of family firms include closed, open and balanced, depending on ownership, management and transfer (Westhead & Howorth, 2007). They are often more complex than non-family businesses due to closely connected family relationships and business interests. A challenge that I noticed during my week's activity is assigning roles and expectations based on individual value, which directly links to business decisions. However, my peer’s posts on the ‘importance of understanding generational gap’ in business plans were an important insight for me to address why marketing and product development vary over the generations within the same business. My contribution in such an area was to add a formal governance structure to reduce conflict.
Reference:
Westhead, P., & Howorth, C. (2007). ‘Types’ of private family firms: an exploratory conceptual and empirical analysis. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 19(5), 405-431.https://doi.org/10.1080/08985620701552405