Title: Survival, age and growth of family businesses and non-family businesses: comparing Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco and Turkey

Authors: Mahya Bayat; Ahmed H. Tolba; Hakim Adel H. Meshreki

Addresses: University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' School of Business, American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt ' School of Business, American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt

Abstract: This study examines some of the key differentiating characteristics of family businesses in contrast to their non-family counterparts, namely their survival, age, and growth, and it compares them within the context of several societies. We hypothesise that, first, family businesses not only survive more but also become older than non-family peers; second, growth (i.e., size) in family firms is slower. Third, the relationship between age and size is weaker in family businesses. In other words, as family businesses become mature, the number of employees does not increase as much as that of non-family businesses. Finally, this relationship differs depending on the society context of a business. To make the above-mentioned comparisons, we used a sample of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data on 1919 firms operating in Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco and Turkey. Hierarchical linear models corroborate our hypotheses, and our results confirm the three first hypotheses while they reject the last one.

Keywords: family businesses; non-family businesses; comparison; survival; firm age; firm growth; society context.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2021.117120

European Journal of International Management, 2021 Vol.16 No.2, pp.239 - 259

Received: 05 May 2019
Accepted: 08 Feb 2020
Published online: 18 Aug 2021 *

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