ABSTRACT
The chapter depicts the characteristics of family businesses which are a specific form of entrepreneurship. It begins with the conceptualization of the term of “family business,” presenting the diversity of definitions and an attempt to explain difficulties in creating a universal definition of this concept and discussing various criteria for the identification of family businesses. Subsequently, the chapter presents numerous characteristics of family businesses, their benefits and drawbacks, including the ones related to the management of these entities. Moreover, it discusses several various approaches to the family business life cycle when emphasizing its specificity and differences in certain aspects when compared to the life cycle of non-family businesses. The chapter also presents a number of typologies of family businesses based on various criteria and the methods of classification of family entrepreneurship.
