Nature of Crises in Family Businesses

Many surveys show the high impact of family businesses on the economy of many nations. Nevertheless crises endanger the further existence of a company. The coupling of the independent but overlapping systems “family”, “business” and “ownership” characterizes the family businesses organization.
This paper analyzes the nature of crises in family enterprises referring to the specific organizational structure and discusses different types of crises in contrast to family firms and non-family firms. The distinction is based in the organization’s structure. In addition, a framework of different dimensions of crises in family businesses is developed.