Many business writers examining family owned business, small business, and entrepreneurial activity attributes every positive characteristic to individuals engaged in these pursuits. The inference in such writing is that such characteristics are absent in those individuals serving in large firms. If that inference were true, of course, there would be few successful large firms. Further, if these positive individual characteristics were all that were required to insure the success of family owned businesses and small business enterprise generally, the sector would be an overwhelming success. In point of fact, however, most small business start ups fail (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983, pp. 5 12). It is essential, therefore, to look beyond individual characteristics for the factors that are essential to the success of family owned business firms small business enterprise generally.
The factors required to assure the success of family owned businesses and small business enterprise generally are both numerous and varied. In addition, many of these factors are closely related to some of the individual characteristics that are desirable in family owned business owners managers. The factors essential for the success of family owned businesses and small business enterprises generally in the United States are as follows:
1. The first factor is an ability to cope with and effectively respond to rapidly changing conditions in the external environment (Kets de Vries, 1993, pp. 59 71). This factor is particularly relevant in the dynamic economic environment of the 1990s. An ability to cope with and effectively respond to changing conditions is largely derived from the individual characteristics of family owned business owners managers.
2. The second factor essential to the success of family owned businesses and small business enterprises generally is opportunity (Kets de Vries, 1993, pp. 59 71). Opport...