The Family Satisfaction of Business-Owning Families

This paper expands empirical research on family satisfaction by introducing the family APGAR scale, developed and validated in the field of nursing, to measure the satisfaction of business-owning families and applying the Stafford et al.(1999) model of sustainable family businesses to the assessment of family satisfaction. More specifically, this study compares the differences in the effects of business- and family-related variables on family satisfaction for the families of lifestyle business owners and earner business owners. The sample was drawn from the 1997 National Family Business Survey. The family satisfaction was greater for the families of lifestyle business owners, but the family variables made a greater contribution to the explanation of variance in the satisfaction of families of earner business owners. The regression equation explained a higher percentage of the variance for the families of earner business owners. Nine family variables were significant in the satisfaction equation for earner business owners, in contrast to seven significant family variables in the equation for lifestyle business owners. Structured families had a significant positive effect on the satisfaction of lifestyle business owners. The family manager's education, putting the family first rather than the business, and the family management score had significant effects on the satisfaction of earner business owners.