Capturing the familiness of family businesses: The development of a multidimensional scale

This article develops a familiness scale measuring the actual family influence on the business. In three studies, we examine familiness with qualitative and quantitative approaches based on new systems theory. Narrative interviews are employed to generate items. A pre-test based on exploratory and a validation study based on confirmatory factor analysis led to a scale comprising six dimensions with 20 items: (1) ownership, management and control, (2) proficiency level of active family members, (3) sharing of information between active family members, (4) transgenerational orientation, (5) family-employee bond, and (6) family business identity. Results indicate high reliability and validity levels.