Family to Family: Laird Norton Tyee Family Business Survey 2007 was conducted as a national survey and administered with telephone and online data collection techniques. A total of 788 questionnaires were completed through 643 interviews over the telephone and 145 online responses.
Respondents came from a universe of 10,000 businesses throughout the United States. Responses came from the following regions: Mideast (107), Southeast (148), Southwest (74), New England (34), Plains (92), Great Lakes (122), Rocky Mountains (37), and Far West (174). The response rate was 7.9 percent, with a total of 788 people completing the survey during a three-month period.
Identifying a family business can be a challenging exercise, as there are more than 60 widely used definitions. One widely accepted definition is evidence of family ownership of more than 15 percent of a company, strategic influence over the firm as evidenced by members of a family holding management positions, and a desire for business continuity across generations. However, perhaps the most appropriate — and simplest — definition is self-identification of the business as a family enterprise.
In the survey, businesses were selected based on the following criteria:
This revenue floor was selected to identify family-owned firms that either have had — or will have — intergenerational succession issues that would potentially be deemed important long-term challenges.
The geographic distribution in the sample does not statistically reflect the distribution of firms across the various regions. That is, business leaders in some geographic areas (Plains, Rocky Mountains and Far West regions) were more likely to respond to the survey than were others (New England, the Mideast, Great Lakes, and Southeast regions).
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Laird Norton Tyee Family Business Survey 2007
© 2007 Laird Norton Tyee