Definitions

FAMILY BUSINESS

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We refer to a company as a family business if

•     the business is partly or wholly owned by a family or several families or family associations,
•     the proprietor families have the deciding voice in the development of the business on account of their entrepreneurial responsibility,
•     this responsibility is exercised either in a managerial or supervisory role, or a combination of the two,
•     the family plans to pass the business on to its next generation.

The transgenerational element is therefore essential to family businesses. The legal form and size of the business are not relevant. Start-ups and owner-managed businesses are not (yet) family businesses in this sense.