Women in Family-Owned Businesses (August 2003)
Professor Nan Langowitz DBA, Professor I. Elaine Allen PhD

This ground-breaking first look at what makes woman-owned family businesses different was led by CWL and sponsored by MassMutual Life Insurance Company. The study compares and contrasts the businesses owned by women versus men.

Methodology:
The MassMutual Financial Group and the George and Robin Raymond Family Business Institute conducted the American Family Business Survey. The research was directed and supported by the Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center, the Cox Family Enterprise Center at Kennesaw State University, and Babson College. This year’s survey team polled a broad cross-section of family businesses widely dispersed throughout the country. The 20-page questionnaires containing more than 100 questions were mailed in March 2002 to more than 38,000 family businesses. The database was created expressly for this survey. The survey team researched family businesses at least 10 years old with sales volume in excess of $1 million that have at least two officers or directors with the same last name. The full report for the American Family Business Survey can be found by contacting the Raymond Family Business Institute (www.RaymondInstitute.org).

The overall response rate to the American Family Business Survey was 3%, with 1,143 surveys returned within a six-month period. The survey was designed to over-sample women owners. But because the response rate of female-owned businesses was lower than that of male-owned businesses, no over-representation in the sample occurred. Of the 1,143 companies that responded to the survey, 873 (76.4%) identified the gender of the owner if there is a single owner. Of these 873 family businesses, 136 firms (15.6%) reported having a female owner and 737 (84.6%) reported having a male owner. These firms’ responses provide the datafor this report on women in family businesses.

To read the full report, download here.