This book deals with dynastic business families. Such families are characterized by a circle of owners comprising more than 50 family members, which typically face specific issues and challenges for which there has been little research knowledge and practical approaches until now. The book presents results and findings from a special research project on "big family management" where 7 representatives of dynastic families from Germany were studied over a 3-year period. The result was the identification of six topic areas that management in these business families has to deal with. At the same time, the study observes that dynastic business families hardly follow the logic of classic families anymore, but can rather be understood as networks with common family backgrounds. The study also reveals that a large number of business families are heading for large shareholder groups due to changed inheritance practices. The contents outlined here provide an orientation framework for the growing business family.

Dieses Buch beschaftigt sich mit einem besonderen Typus von Eigentumerfamilien: der dynastischen Unternehmerfamilie. Diese Unternehmerfamilien zeichnen sich durch einen Eigentumerkreis aus, der mehr als 50 Familienmitglieder umfasst. Unternehmerfamilien dieses Typus stehen vor spezifischen Fragestellungen und Herausforderungen, fur die es bisher kaum Forschungserkenntnisse und praktische Loesungsansatze gab. Das Autorenteam hat uber drei Jahre mit Vertretern dieses Familientypus intensiv zusammengearbeitet. Herausgekommen sind sechs Themenfelder, die ein Management in diesen Unternehmerfamilien zu bearbeiten hat. Eine Vielzahl von Unternehmerfamilien steuert aufgrund geanderter Vererbungspraktiken auf grosse Gesellschafterkreise zu. Die hier skizzierten Inhalte eines "Big Family Managements" koennen als Orientierungsrahmen fur die wachsende Unternehmerfamilie verwendet werden.

The entrepreneurial family has hardly been a topic of family sociology so far. Precisely because more than two-thirds of all companies are family-run, it is surprising that sociology has not yet discovered the entrepreneurial family as a field of research. With this book, it is made the content of systematic family sociological reflections. A central point of departure for theorizing and research on entrepreneurial families is that this form of family has to deal with special social challenges because it structurally combines, mixes, and couples two social spheres that are generally pulled apart in the course of the modernization of society, namely families as part of the private life world and companies as the formal organization of the economic system.

This book deals with dynastic business families. Such families are characterized by a circle of owners comprising more than 50 family members, which typically face specific issues and challenges for which there has been little research knowledge and practical approaches until now. The book presents results and findings from a special research project on "big family management" where 7 representatives of dynastic families from Germany were studied over a 3-year period. The result was the identification of six topic areas that management in these business families has to deal with. At the same time, the study observes that dynastic business families hardly follow the logic of classic families anymore, but can rather be understood as networks with common family backgrounds. The study also reveals that a large number of business families are heading for large shareholder groups due to changed inheritance practices. The contents outlined here provide an orientation framework for the growing business family.

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Die Unternehmerfamilie ist bisher kaum ein Thema der Familiensoziologie. Gerade weil mehr als Zweidrittel aller Unternehmen familiengefuhrt sind, erstaunt es, dass die Soziologie die Unternehmerfamilie bisher nicht als Forschungsfeld entdeckt hat. Mit diesem Buch wird sie zum Inhalt systematischer familiensoziologischer Reflexionen gemacht. Ein zentraler Ausgangspunkt der Theoriebildung und Forschung zu Unternehmerfamilien ist, dass es diese Familienform mit besonderen sozialen Herausforderungen zu tun hat, weil sich in ihr zwei soziale Spharen strukturell verbinden, vermischen und verkoppeln, die im Zuge der Modernisierung der Gesellschaft gemeinhin auseinandergezogen werden, und zwar Familien als Teil der privaten Lebenswelt und Unternehmen als formale Organisation des Wirtschaftssystems.