A preliminary study of entrepreneurial family businesses in New Zealand, and some implications for growth

Family Business was rediscovered as a global phenomenon in the 1980s, about 10 years after researchers had rediscovered that, internationally, small and medium-sized businesses make a significant contribution to output, and to employment. In much of the traditional literature, Family Business is negatively stereotyped either in a 'mom and pop' model, as the corner store business, incapable of significant growth; or in a 'patriarchal' model, hierarchical, dominated by the founder, and resistant to change. In the orthodox economic model of the firm, the family firm is merely one stage in the life of the enterprise, following the start-up period and preceding the public company phase. In all of these, the Family Business is a limited and limiting model. The new academic field of Family Business was given coherence and direction by Sharma (2004). Although research on Family Business in New Zealand is sparse, it appears that here, too, many large and small businesses are family businesses. Also, interestingly, despite constraining stereotypes, and although they would meet only the loosest criteria, some very successful New Zealand CEOs choose to identify their enterprises as family businesses, indicating that Family Business has positive connotations in New Zealand. It would be useful to investigate the prevalence of entrepreneurial Family Businesses in New Zealand. It would also be useful to explore the various definitions of Family Business, giving particular attention to attribution of positive and negative characteristics.