Raphaëlle MATTART, Fabrice PIRNAY, Nathalie CRUTZEN
Applied Research Report (October 2020)
Summary
Family entrepreneurship is the most common model of entrepreneurship in the world, even accounting for 75% of businesses in most Western countries (Cho, Miller, & Lee, 2018; Chrisman, Chua, & Steier, 2003; Dawson, 2011; Poulain-Rehm, 2006).
Originally, the company is “a family business” (Hirigoyen 2009). Indeed, it is through the perpetuation of an idea, of a project, generation after generation, that family businesses are born, with, as a main characteristic, a long-term vision. The literature does not
The family model is praised extensively and much of the literature focuses on its many benefits. Nevertheless, sometimes this model can backfire, especially when it is too confined to the family.
In this context, this research report focuses on the problem of opening family businesses to the outside world. Openness being a broad notion, two points of attention will be studied: (1) openness of governance and (2) openness of capital in family businesses.