Start-Up Motivations and Growth Orientation of Owners of Family Business – A Care Entrepreneurship Approach

Abstract

Comparisons between family business and non-family business are still quite rare in some business areas. The aim of this article is to analyse the start-up motivations and growth orientation of family business in the area of care entrepreneurs. The specific research tasks are: 1) to describe and compare entrepreneurs’ start-up motivations and growth orientation between family firms and non-family firms; 2) to describe the rela-tion of the start-up motivations to the growth orientation of manager-owners in fam-ily firms and non-family firms. The definition of growth orientation is not unambigu-ous. In this article it was seen as a subjective orientation of manager-owners of firms, but quite often the focus has been on the firm level and its objective measurements. A survey study directed at the manager- owners of care enterprises (n = 461) was con-ducted 2005–2006 in Finland. Our first hypothesis concerning the differences in start-up motivations between manager owners of family or non-family firms was supported only marginally. Our second hypothesis as well as our results followed existing re-search evidence concerning the lesser growth orientation of family business. This lesser growth orientation was not connected to any start-up motivation of the man-ager-owners of family firms (Hypothesis 3). These results are connected to practical and scientific implications in the family business context.