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April 2018

Among the unique characteristics differentiating family enterprises from their non-family counterparts is that family-owned businesses are much more driven by nonfinancial social and emotional motivators. In this week’s edition, Kim Schneider Malek explores the research that has been conducted on socioemotional wealth through her précis of “More Than Meets the Eye: A Review and Future Directions for the Social Psychology of Socioemotional Wealth,” an article appearing the March 2018 issue of FBR.

For family businesses, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to governance and advisers need to understand each family’s unique values and ownership philosophies before attempting to implement specific governance structures. Thanks to Marta Widz and Benoît Leleux from IMD for illustrating this point by sharing two cases where the family businesses have divergent ownership philosophies but have both excelled in their governance practices.

Thanks to this week’s contributors, Annie Koh and Esther Kong of Singapore Management University for providing a new perspective on how family business advisers can create trust and forge sustainable partnerships with the next generation. Their suggestion? The adviser should play the role of a Connector, Collaborator, and even a Co-Investor.