Organic model to reflect the transitional nature of family firms

An Organic Model for depicting the transitional nature of family businesses is proposed to reflect the dynamics involved when both business and family issues are intermingled. Along with those of other researchers, the model is founded on appreciations of the relative priority that is given to the achievement of business and family goals, but is extended to allow for the transitional nature of family businesses. The model depicts four quadrants of family business types (Personal, Livelihoods, Bank, and Heritage) that overlap to form transition zones between those four principal states of being. A family business could be located in any of the four quadrants but can also, perhaps by deliberate design or maybe due to circumstances, be positioned in one of the overlapping transition zones between them. Larger family firms could also straddle the quadrants or have different parts of the family firm in a different state at the same time. Several measures can be used to determine the location of the family business, including the importance attached to socioemotional wealth and the use made of professional business advisors. Attention is also given to the inevitability of change as new generations of family members emerge and become involved in the family business.