29. Generational Change and Conflicts Among Shareholders

Family businesses are the defining type of company in the German-speaking world. More than 90% of German companies are family businesses. They provide almost 60% of all jobs and prove to be a stabilising factor on the labour market even in economically difficult times. This is the result of research by the Stiftung Familienunternehmen (Family Business Foundation). However, family businesses are also particularly caught between the conflicting demands of economic success, family expectations and social environmental factors. If an entrepreneurial family decides today to hand over the family business to only one child and consequently to place this child in a better position materially than the other children, then this contradicts the current concept of justice in the family on the one hand. On the other hand, this solution is historically influenced because in earlier times this was how the functioning of a business was maintained (Felden et al., 2019).