Date of Award:

5-2010

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Human Development and Family Studies

Department name when degree awarded

Family, Consumer, and Human Development

Committee Chair(s)

Yoon G. Lee

Committee

Yoon G. Lee

Committee

Kathleen W. Piercy

Committee

Alena C. Johnson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine many factors associated with family-owned businesses that lead to business success and profitability. The panel data used in this study came from the 1997 and 2000 waves of the National Family Business Study (NFBS). Many independent variables from the 1997 wave (e.g., age, gender, managerial activities, business size, home-based, business problems) were tested to predict business success and profitability (dependent variables), which were variables from the 2000 wave.

Some of the descriptive analyses indicated that, compared to female managers, male managers perceived less business success, participated more in managerial activities, managed older businesses, experienced more business problems, and experienced fewer business cash-flow problems. Compared to businesses that are not home-based, home-based businesses reported less perceived business success, less business profitability, were smaller businesses, experienced fewer business problems, had fewer business liabilities, and had managers with poorer health and less education.

Overall, the ordinary least squares regression analyses yielded results indicating that managerial activities, home-based businesses, business age, business problems, and business cash-flow problems were all statistically significantly associated with perceived business success. Business size was shown to be significantly associated with business profitability. Implications of the findings, limitations of the current study, and recommendations for future research were presented in the final section.

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28ed33942cabed44f73b213af53957ad

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