Export
Issue No. 14 - December/January 2004
Exporting the Family Business
Venturing Beyond the Backyard
Australian family—owned firms make a significant contribution to the Australian and global economy. In Australia they are the largest employer group with about 3 million of the 5.5 million workforce, equating to over 50% of the private sector workforce, and are estimated to be worth approximately $A3.3 trillion (Smyrnios and Walker, 2003).
Despite the fact that the complexities associated with managing a family—owned business are not addressed by classical management theory, limited empirical research has focussed on the performance of family firms.
In response to this, the SA Chapter of Family Business Australia collaborated with Dr. Jill Thomas (University of Adelaide) and Associate Professor Bruce Gurd (University of South Australia), to apply for research funding through an Australian Research Council linkage program grant. Being conducted by Chris Graves, PhD student at the University of Adelaide, the focus of the research is on the ‘Strategic Responses to Globalisation by Family Owned and Managed Businesses in the SME Manufacturing Sector’.
As part of his research Chris has analysed figures from the Business Longitudinal Survey (BLS) of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The survey contains data on almost 10,000 Australian small to medium—sized businesses employing less than 200 people and has some indicators of family business activity.
Because only 4% of all Australian businesses are engaged in exporting——well below the level of most OECD countries——the Federal Government has set itself the ambitious task of trying to double that number by 2006. Because family—owned enterprises make up over 70% of all businesses in Australia, the economic prosperity of Australia largely depends upon the success of family firms in the global marketplace. The more we can understand about what makes family businesses take the step to export, and how they ensure their ongoing success, the better our chances of boosting Australi...
