ABSTRACT
Family businesses contribute to most of the gross national product and provide most places of employment. In the United States, up to 90 per cent of all enterprises are family-owned In Spain, 75 to 90 per cent of the total jobs are provided by small family-owned businesses (Gallo 1988). Family businesses also proliferate in Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia (Ward 1987a, 1987b; Swinth and Vinton 1993). Litz (1995) even estimates that family-owned businesses comprise over 95 per cent of all business establishments worldwide. The dominant role of family businesses in the Hong Kong economy is also obvious. Evers (2000: B3) reports,
[T]raditional Chinese family businesses, like the empires of Li Ka-shing, Robert Kwok [Kuok] or Mochtar Riady [also known as Lee Man-tjin], now make up over 70 per cent of the Hang Seng capitalization and a huge chunk of stock markets across Asia.
