Owner-Manager Attitudes to Family and Business Issues : A 16 Country Study

This paper reports the results of a 16-country study into that attitudes of owner managers to both business and family decisions. Three clusters of attitudes emerged – those who wished their involve the family (Family In), those who wished to strike a balance (Family-Business Jugglers), and those who wished to exclude the family (Family Out). Those who considered the business to be a family business were more likely to be in the first two clusters. This research highlights the need to examine this perspective and to explore further how it may vary across countries.The study has been made in collaboration with: Prof. H. Cregns and Prof. D. De Schoolmoester, De Vlerick University, Belgium; N. Siller, Research Dimensions, Canada; Dr. L. Heddaa, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; Prof. A. Miettinen, University of Tampere, Finland; Prof. H. Klandt, European Business School, Germany; Prof. G.Venieris, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece; C. Goodman, Irish Management Institute, Eire; Prof. S. Cipollina, CUOA University, Italy; Prof. Matsuura, Tama University, Japan; Dr. F. Guttman, Erasmus University, The Netherlands; Prof. J. Dziechciarz, Academy of Economics, Poland; Prof. K.C.Suarez, University of Los Palmos, Spain; Prof. L. Lindmark, Prof. L. Melin, and H. Hall, Jonkoping University, Sweden; Prof. H. Pleitner and M. Habersaat, St Gallen University, Switzerland; Dr. S. Spinelli, Babson College, USA