Family business has recently gained research attention, particularly in specific contexts. We extend the existing literature by exploring the urban and rural context of family business, focusing on a sample of 3935 family and non-family businesses in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Family businesses are known to be more self-reliant than non-family businesses. Therefore, we expect them to thrive in a rural environment, where institutions are less elaborate, resources fewer, and networks sparser than in urban eco-systems, which are expected to be better for non-family businesses. We find that businesses governed by families are more frequently seen in rural areas than cities and those governed by non-family more often in urban than rural areas - and this pattern is remarkably similar in the three countries studied here, suggesting that it may well be generalisable globally.
Authors: Fatima Boutaleb, Esra Karadeniz, Seham Ghalwash
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2021.10033924
Publish Year: 2020
