A family enterprise is a system, and one cannot look at it without taking into account the performance of its individual subsystems–the business, the ownership, and the family–for the behavior of any one part of the system will influence and be influenced by the others.

The fate of each of the subsystems is intertwined. It is necessary to understand that these strands may not be disentangled without seriously disrupting one or all parts of the system.

–adapted from Kepner, E. (1991), The Family and the Firm: A Coevolutionary Perspective. Family Business Review, 4: 445–461. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-6248.1991.00445.x

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-6248.1991.00445.x/abstract