Issue 16

ERENET Profile Vol. IV, No. 4.
www.erenet.org
Peter Szirmai - Katalin Mihalkov Szakács
Small Business Development Centre
Corvinus University of Budapest
Hungary
E-mail: katalin.szakacs@gmail.com
Introduction
CONGENITAL VALUE-CONFLICTS OF FAMILY BUSINESSES –
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
We use the concepts ‘family’ and ‘family business’ with such naturalism here in Europe, like they were
some perpetual results or consequences of human nature. Though, the family-model of our age has gone
through sweeping changes in the last millennia of history.
Introducing the history of evolution of today’s European family-model is not the task of this
presentation. In order to get enough information in this theme you should read the Greek folklore. In this
culture commons of some men and women have changed into the ‘family of monogamy’, which means the
common of one man (the husband) and one woman (the wife). In this type of families husbands are proud if a
god or demi-god visits their wives, and women also like when female or male slaves entertain their partners.
The collecting-fishing-hunting way of life and the feudal society, being in the making, necessitated
different types of family-models. The feudal family functioned as a producer unit, and the system of the family
ensured the patrimony of land-property. This some-centenarian family-model has gone through changes
during the modern industrial society. Family-sociological surveys certified both in Western and Eastern-
Europe that families from producer units changed into consumer units.
The system, in which economy organized itself around families, appeared in the ancient Greek society.
The family-business called “villa-economy” or “oikos” in Greece was examined by Max Weber. It consisted of
50-60 members who lived together in one detached house or villa. These distant relations produce everything
they need, and they do not manufacture more surplus than needed for bartering.
This kind of producer-family – converged by production – was typical in the feudal European, mainly in
the Christian societies. In these families people already knew the weird of the descendant at the time of birth:
heredity or work. Such decisions were made when a child was born, which could not be corrected later on. In
a later part of my presentation I will tell you further information about the development of socialist consumerfamily.
During the analyse we have to put off that wide-spread approach that supports the one of mechanic
materialism or mechanic spiritualism. According to these approaches we should wrongly believe that families
and businesses are two extreme, accompanying concepts. For example we cannot say that solidarity and profit
preclude the possibility of each other. Just the opposite happens in practice. A thing that is useful under a
certain level in one context can be damaging over it in another context. (For example almost the most
important value of a family is love: the love of a mother towards her children or the love of a wife towards her
husband. But a sixty-year-old mother who loves his forty-year-old son in a staunch way is detrimental for
him.)
The support of the family, friends and fools is very important and useful when we talk about
entrepreneurs (Vecsenyi, 2002). But in connection with financing their role is not so important, since they
usually come on like employees, consumers, customers, or further beneficial relations. In fact these kinds of
family ties can be nuisance, too.
Value category-pairs
Analysing family businesses we meet many opposing concepts. But as I have already told you, in case of
dialectic approach the categories do not preclude the possibility of each other but they support each other.
The life and the development of a family mean the transition between these opposing categories. In order to
be successful entrepreneurs and to run a successful business it is indispensable that we had a solid family
background.
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