Looking in the Other Direction: An Ethnographic Analysis of How Family Businesses Can Be Operated to Enhance Familial Well-Being

Abstract

While much family business research has examined how family ownership affects businesses, this paper raises a question consistent with enquiries in the latter direction: How can family firms be operated to enhance the well-being of owning families and their members? We address this question by analyzing ethnographic data collected from an “extreme case” of both family enterprising and familial well-being: Hutterite colonies in Western Canada. Our findings suggest three enterprise-level strategies and three task-level practices that strengthen family member satisfaction and family system effectiveness.