Abstract:
Since the 1980s, family businesses have become a global phenomenon. Research in Europe and the USA shows that most of the new jobs created in the last decade have originated from family firms and that there are links between family businesses and profitability, longevity, and entrepreneurship. Research has also shown that the overwhelming majority of family firms are small- and medium-sized enterprises, and it is part of the received wisdom that for any small business, employment relations is one of the most important functions. Despite its acknowledged importance, little research has focussed on employment relations in either ‘family’, or ‘entrepreneurial’ businesses. This paper provides an overview of the relevant research and offers a preliminary exploration of how the family models, defined in binary terms as patriarchal or parental, can impact on family and non-family employees in entrepreneurial, family businesses The family models are then combined with a learning model as a framework for understanding employment relations in such enterprises.