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

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a 16-country study into the attitudes of owner-managers to both business and family decisions. Three clusters of attitudes emerged—those who wished to involve their family, those who wished to strike a balance, and those who wished to exclude the family. The paper concludes that there is a set of attitudes towards the family and the business that consistently combine to divide owner-managers. This research highlights the need to examine this perspective and to explore further how it may vary across countries.