What is Closely Held Family Business

This chapter follows the new research current that looks for heterogeneity between family businesses and its consequences. Through a cluster analysis, the chapter presents a taxonomy of four groups with different family government profiles, depending on the scope—number of issues considered—and the level of formalization. Alike, the research describes the different relative importance that each group attaches a to financial and non-financial performance measures, as well as to the dimensions of business and family success. The chapter analyzes a sample of 147 SME family businesses that belong to the tourism industry. All of them are closely held family businesses that range between the first and third generation. Results show how family businesses with wide and formalized family government systems place a special emphasis on those success measures related to stakeholder satisfaction, family satisfaction, and wealth preservation. They present a stronger continuity intention.