ABSTRACT
Stewardship is a theory that explores how interests other than financial interests motivate leaders or employees (Davis, Schoorman and Donaldson, 1997). This is an applicable theory for family businesses (Miller and Le Breton-Miller, 2005) as family ownership, when both financially and emotionally healthy, strategizes the interest of several generations of owners. The most classic way of thinking of stewardship within family businesses is when a family takes into consideration a future generation in decision making (Ward and Aronoff, 2010). The long-term benefit for the next generation is balanced against seeking short-term profit or taking out revenue, and influences how they invest in assets. This generation can be young children or as yet-unborn generations. The owners of a family business have the power to make these types of decisions without justifying them to a disparate group of shareholders. The freedom to reduce profit in order to fulfil such goals is unique for family owners and their businesses.
