Friends or foes : An exploratory study of the relationship between private equity and family business through the paradigm of socioemotional wealth

Abstract

Family businesses account for the majority of output and employment in economies around the world. Private equity is an increasingly important source of capital and expertise for such companies. This exploratory, qualitative study employs the theoretical lens of socioemotional wealth to discern the major challenges to managing a successful private equity investment in a family business, as well as how best to overcome such challenges. In-depth, semi-structured interviews confirm a number of the challenges and solutions in extant literature, and reveal several new ones.