Towards a better understanding of Family Business Groups and their key dimensions

The purpose of this research is to introduce an analytical framework aimed at critically assessing the governance associated with inter-organizational relations in a Family Business Group (FBG) by focusing on their distinctive dimensions of analysis, namely their nature, their type, their intensity and their persistence over time. Drawing on the literature on family firms, business groups by adopting a family embeddedness perspective, and by relying on an in-depth exploratory case-study based on a well established FBG (that consists of a focal firm and 33 subsidiaries) in the fashion industry, we empirically assess the relevance of these four dimensions. From the preliminary findings it emerges that not only the relational structure (shareholdings) and the relational texture (interlocking directorships) play a crucial role in the governance of a FBG but the intensity and the persistence of this specific set of inter-organizational relations over time should be considered as amongst its key dimensions. The analytical and the methodological contribution of the research, the managerial implications stemming from its main findings and directions for future research are also addressed in the concluding section of the paper.