Family business

Commercial enterprise run by a family Family business is a type of commercial organization in which management decisions are made or influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood, marriage or adoption, who have both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingness to use this ability to pursue distinctive goals. They are closely identified with the firm through leadership or ownership. Owner-manager entrepreneurial firms are not considered to be family businesses because they lack the multi-generational dimension and family influence that create the unique dynamics and relationships of family businesses. Overview A family business is the oldest and most common model of economic organization. The vast majority of businesses throughout the world—from corner shops to multinational publicly listed organizations with hundreds of thousands of employees—can be considered as family businesses. Based on research of the Forbes 400 richest Americans, 44% of the Forbes 400 member fortunes were derived by being a member of or in association with a family business. The economic prevalence and importance of this kind of business are often underestimat