The Family Firm in Industrial Capitalism: International Perspectives on Hypotheses and History

This comparative analysis of the international literature on family firms takes A.D. Chandler's concept of ‘personal capitalism’, presented in Scale and Scope, as the theoretical frame of reference. The article focuses principally on Britain, particularly the thesis that large family firms were probably major contributors to national economic decline during the first half of the twentieth century. However, comparisons drawn between the characteristics and role of family firms in the United States, Germany and Japan suggest that it is not possible to describe them in a way which transcends either chronological or geographical boundaries. Comparisons of the behaviour and performance of family firms and managerial enterprises suggest that, contrary to Chandler's view, as a concept the family firm offers a limited understanding of the differential industrial performance of competing national economies before World War II. National and corporate cultural differences are seen to have been more important influences on business behaviour than contrasting organisational structures.