Family and Enterprise

This chapter provides a review of the different approaches that have been utilised to examine the link between family and enterprise. Definitional issues are addressed, as are rationalist and ‘systems’ ways of evaluating the relationship between family and enterprise. Criticism is made of the effects of rationalist thinking on studies of family businesses which have tended to create duality and polarity in our understanding of the family-enterprise relationship. It is argued that a developmental and integrated view of family and enterprise is more useful for understanding the specific transactions linking the institutions of ‘economy’ and ‘family’. A range of approaches and theories that are being used to examine the integration of family and enterprise/business activities are outlined. The chapter concludes with a discussion of interpretive inquiry and its potential benefits or uses in explaining how family and enterprise issues ‘come together’ in small business creation and development.