The influence of family and non-family stakeholders on Family Business success

Abstract

The greatest threats to the growth, success and survival of a family business are primarily issues related to family relationships. The involvement of non-family members has also shown to present many threats as well as opportunities for the family business. Because of the increasing number of sibling teams among family businesses this article focuses on the impact of family and non-family members’ involvement on the success of sibling-owned family businesses. Key stakeholders identified as influencing a Sibling Partnership are parents, non-active sibling shareholders, spouses, and non-family members. The primary objectives of this article are thus to evaluate the impact of the stakeholders identified on the success of a Sibling Partnership, by subjecting these relationships to empirical testing, and making recommendations to successfully manage relationships in family businesses. A structured questionnaire was made available to 1 323 sibling partner respondents. The respondents were identified by means of a convenience snowball sampling technique, and the data collected from 371 usable questionnaires was subjected to various statistical analyses. The empirical findings of this study show that both past and present Parental involvement, as well as the involvement of other family members and Non-family employees in the sibling-owned family businesses, significantly impact on its success.

Keywords and phrases: Family business, Sibling Partnership, family team, family relationships, spouses, non-active shareholders, stakeholders