A Family Dimension in SME Owner-Managers Ownership Profiles A Psychological Ownership Perspective

Abstract

This paper introduces a contextual model of ownership that consists of social, action and object dimensions. We build on business ownership and family business literatures as well as that of the psychology of ownership to analyze small business owner-managers’ ownership profiles. In the empirical section we show that distinct ownership profiles can be identified and that those owner-managers who view their business as a family business have distinct profiles from those of non-family business owners. Our analysis shows that family business profiles include care-taking, stewardship and continuity as well as a perception of the company as a tool for achieving other valuable things in the world outside the company. Most importantly, we note that these profiles differ dramatically from the personal, extended self type of psychological ownership previously seen as the key element in family businesses. We conclude that future research should pay more attention to the sharedness and collective orientation present in family firms, including development and adoption of collective level measures in studying ownership and the related psychological states.