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1. Introduction
The family is, no doubt, the oldest and longest running social unit in our world. Families were formed along with small communities long before commerce began. In fact, families, often in connection with the local communities, sustained themselves by self-sufficient means ([37] Ponzetti, 2003). Although the business enterprise is, of course, integral to the long-run sustainability of the family firm, the family is equally important to the family firm. The family unit brings together and creates the forces enabling the emerging and sustained entrepreneurial behavior. The conceptualization of the family business must encompass a multidisciplinary and comprehensive perspective of the complex and dynamic phenomenon of business that is owned and operated by family members.
The emergence of business concerns from within families is simply a historical fact and a nature and logical phenomenon. For their sustainability, families must provide for their members, earn a living day to day, and, very often, desire to accumulate wealth over time. Businesses started and operated by families have historical ties to farmers, guild members, crafters, and local commerce, to name a few. So, often historically, the physical location of the business was synonymous with the actual business location and operations and the family. Even in the case of the early, small-scale storefront businesses, families often lived in the upper floors of the building with the store on the street level. Or in the case of farmer, the family was quite literally in the midst of the agricultural activity and, in some cases, the actual growing or producing of vegetables, poultry, eggs, or milk and its related products were carried by family members on the farm. Only with the industrial age, did the segmentation of the family from the business widen along with the development of wage or salary work for a non-family employer ([22] Heck et al. , 1995).
Family businesses in our society and economy have strong historical presence and extensive prevalence, as well as vital economic and social contributions ([23] Heck and Stafford, 2001; [24] Heck and Trent, 1999). Nonetheless, family business as a field of academic study is recent and still emerging. Scholars have begun to recognize the importance of family businesses and their connection to entrepreneurship ([38] Rogoff and Heck, 2003; [47]...