Family Business Unit

The growing importance of family-owned businesses

Family businesses are fast becoming the dominant form of business enterprise in both developed and developing economies, and play an important role, both economically and socially. Their influence and the number of family businesses are expected to increase substantially in the near future. This rapid growth can be attributed to the rationalising process taking place in many large corporations, together with a growing inability of the formal sector to create new jobs. For the past 300 years or more, family businesses have been making a positive contribution to the South African economy, and will continue to offer significant opportunities for economic growth in both South Africa and neighbouring countries.

The challenges facing family businesses

Apart from facing similar business and environmental challenges to those of non-family-owned businesses, family-owned businesses face additional challenges because of their unique nature and familial interpersonal relationships. These include problems arising from family conflict, emotional issues, sibling rivalry, autocratic paternalistic cultures, nepotism, rigidity in innovation, succession, and resistance to change. Of these, succession (in both management and ownership) is probably the biggest challenge faced by the majority of family businesses. Statistics worldwide show that only 30-33% of family businesses survive past the first generation, while even fewer (10-16%) survive to the third generation. If a family business is not healthy, all three subsystems, the family, ownership, and management, suffer in terms of relationships, growth, employment, and efficiency. Given the importance of family businesses, it is critical that all efforts be made to assist their owners to deal with the complex challenges they face. Africa in general, and South Africa in particular, urgently need to create more wealth, and an environment conducive to more successful businesses if they are to achieve their many economic, social and personal objectives. Given the significant contributions that family businesses make to the economies of their respective countries, one can only imagine their impact if their failure rate can be reduced. Consequently, it is vital that all efforts be made to promote the success and sustainability of these businesses.

Against this background, the NMMU Family Business Unit has been established, to assist family businesses to identify and avoid problems, solve complex family issues, and plan for changes in the current and future environments. The unit takes a strategic, growth oriented approach to working with family businesses and their stakeholders. As such, the unit strives to assist business families in creating an ongoing legacy of entrepreneurship.

The NMMU Family Business Unit will be working closely with leading scholars and family businesses to provide excellence in family business research and teaching, and to be a valuable resource for family business owners, advisors to family businesses, researchers, and policy-makers interested in the field.

Our mission

To be the leading Family Business Unit in Africa through academic excellence, practical relevance, and the development and dissemination of knowledge and expertise in the field of family businesses.

In striving to achieve this mission, the NMMU Family Business Unit undertakes to:

• Become the driver and leader of family business research, consultation and training in Africa
• Value diversity and recognise differences in abilities, beliefs, cultures, education, gender, and professions
• Build partnerships and business affiliations that contribute to the core purposes of the NMMU Family Business Unit
• Create a platform to share knowledge and best practices with family businesses
• Assist family business leaders and/or managers all over Africa to grow and to prosper by offering executive programmes, workshops, short courses, high-quality research, and consulting
• Be at the forefront, both nationally and internationally, in producing high-quality research outputs that are published in the top academic journals of the world
• Gain recognition for the field of family-business research as an independent field of study, in the corporate sector, government, and academia.

Download Our Brochure

For further information about the Family Business Unit and our areas of focus, download our brochure.

Contact Us

NMMU Family Business Unit
Felsted Building
20 Bird Street
NMMU Business School - Bird Street Campus
Central
Port Elizabeth 6001

Contact person: Carey Eybers

Tel: +27 (0) 41 504 4599
Contact Us