The Invisible Bedrock: Four Constructs of Family Business Space

Abstract

Worldwide, family businesses form the most common type of business and families act as critical platforms for business and enterprise development. This paper draws upon the concept of space to propose a new framework within which family business can be considered. Starting from the proposal that creating space for business and enterprise to flourish is vital, the manner in which space may best facilitate the family business is considered as an extension of entrepreneurial space. Four spaces are proposed: conceptual space, where families and businesses exist in the minds of planners stands alongside cultural space where space is created within the family. Community space to facilitate development is vital - alongside contingency space where families and businesses apply idiosyncratic knowledge. The four dimensions of space are linked, it is proposed, by networks. © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.