Family business members hold dual and complex roles because of their membership in both the family and the business, unlike employees in nonfamily firms, and this role conflict remains quite underestimated.

Family businesses are an often overlooked form of ownership. Yet they are all around us—from neighborhood mom-and-pop stores and the millions of small and midsize companies that underpin many economies to household names such as BMW, Samsung, and Wal-Mart Stores.

One of the most severe problems that entrepreneurial firms and especially family owned businesses face is the problem of succession. Many times the younger generation cannot hold out until the older generation quits.

Only a few years ago, the idea of one-half of a married couple taking control of the other’s business through a divorce decree, was virtually unheard of. Today’s legal system believes that both parties to a marriage make contributions, financial and otherwise, to form “marital assets,” which can include a company.

Randi and Debbi Fields of Mrs. Fields Cookies have built a very successful firm. Fred and Gale Hayman built Giorgio Beverly Hills into a multi-million dollar boutique and fragrance line until they divorced in 1983.

There many issues to consider and questions to ask before an individual in the second or third or even fourth generation in a family that owns, controls or manages a family firm.

Despite their importance in the economy, family businesses have a complex set of problems not completely addressed by classical management theory, namely, inherent tension and conflict.

From an academic perspective, curricula targeting specifically family business with its own specific characteristics and competitive advantages and disadvantages include a wide array of academic disciplines with a variety of backgrounds, such as business, family economics, family sociology, and psychology.

Complexities in a family firm result from the conflict that is generated from the intersection of the family firm’s three domains, namely: Family, Ownership and Management.

The goal of the succession process in a family firm should be to minimize uncertainty and gain continued support from stakeholders for the succession process. However, quite frequently the founder, the family, the owners, the senior managers, and other stakeholders typically experience strong ambivalent feelings toward succession planning and they therefore resist engaging in such planning.