Small and medium-sized enterprises in China are basically family businesses. What are the characteristics of family business?

Like foreign SMEs, SMEs in China are basically family businesses. First of all, families and clans are the social organization foundation of small and medium-sized enterprises in China. The traditional society in China is an agricultural natural economic society with the family as the unit. In economic life, men, women and children of family members closely combine productive labor with living labor, outdoor labor with indoor labor, main labor with auxiliary labor, agricultural labor with manual labor, etc. , can give full play to and coordinate the functions of family members, maximize the use of time, save raw materials and reduce costs. Intensive agriculture in China's traditional society is undertaken by this kind of small family. It is this traditional form of social organization that in the initial stage of family business, most family businesses in China also appeared in the form of "husband and wife" and "father and son", still taking the family as the unit, only transferring the production function to industry and commerce.

The hierarchical system and concepts of "respect and inferiority", "loyalty" and "obedience" in the traditional family system, as well as the high sense of identity and unity among family members, the paternalistic authority formed in the family business, and the corresponding management mode of "rule by man" are conducive to organizing leadership, reducing internal friction of enterprises, enhancing enterprise cohesion, reducing the difficulty and cost of management control, and playing an important role in the process of starting a business.

With the development of family business, although more family members, relatives, friends and villagers have been recruited to work in the enterprise, the increasingly mature institutional environment has been familiar and observed by everyone. At the same time, because most family businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, with simple internal structure, flexible operation and single products, the ability and experience of business operators can support the normal development of enterprises, so it is inevitable that families and families will become the basis of the organizational form of small and medium-sized enterprises in China. ? Secondly, although most family businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, small scale does not mean that they will inevitably fall into development difficulties.

In fact, a country's sustained and steady economic growth cannot be separated from a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. Take Germany as an example. Germany is one of the leading industrial countries in the world and the most powerful economic power in Europe. The organizational form with family business as the main body makes Germany's economic competitiveness always in the top few in the global rankings. According to the latest statistics, there are currently more than 2 million enterprises in Germany, of which about 98% are small and medium-sized enterprises, and most of them are small enterprises with less than 10 employees.

Most small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany are family businesses. Industry is the backbone of the German economy. At present 1995, there are about 48,000 enterprises with 6.8 million employees. Large enterprises with more than 1 000 employees only account for about 1.7% of industrial enterprises, and the rest are small and medium-sized enterprises, of which about three-quarters have less than 1 000 employees. Handicraft industry is an important economic sector in Germany, especially in the new federal countries, and it is the largest economic sector before industry.

1995, there were about 563,000 handicraft enterprises with 6.2 million employees. Enterprises in this industry are basically small and medium-sized enterprises. Handicraft enterprises are one of the most important training places in Germany, where about 37% of apprentices study a profession. Commercial enterprises are always small and medium-sized enterprises. At present, there are about 620,000 enterprises with 5 million employees. Most enterprises employ no more than two people, and the owners themselves are employees. Freelancers are an important part of small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany, and their added value accounts for about 6% of GDP. At present, there are about 580,000 freelancers and 6.5438+0.5 million employees. From 65438 to 0995, about 275000 workers worked in about 523000 enterprises.