Strategic practices of family firms: an empirical study of Australian family firms

This study explores the business strategies of family firms and investigates the association between business strategies and firm life cycle. The data employed in this study are drawn from the Australian Centre for Family Business and the centre has collected the data from family firms located in all states and territories of Australia by a questionnaire. The sample consists of 276 family firms in all sectors of business which includes agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining, manufacturing, constructing, transportation, communication and utilities, wholesaling, retailing, finance, insurance and real estates. The findings of the study suggest that while differentiation strategy is significant to family firms, diversification strategy is less important. In addition, study found that family firms favour for the cost leadership at the decline stage rather than other stages.