Family dynamics and family-business success through work-family interface in tourism in Sri Lanka

The majority of firms begin as family businesses (FBs) and are considered to be the lifeblood of any economy. Any business which is owned and operated by an individual, couple or family is considered to be a family business. The mutual impact of family on business and business on family differentiates the field of family business studies from others. Throughout history and all over the world, families and businesses have always been integrated. The business provides income to the family, and the family may provide paid and unpaid labour. Moreover, the family system contributes to business additional resources such as money, space, equipment, and other factors of production. From this point of view, family could be considered as the key resource for the family business. Further, business and family interface plays a critical role in determining family responses to business and vice-versa. Enrichments and conflicts occur in both domains impact not only within the specific domain but also on interactions of domains.\ud Hence, in order to identify the behaviour of family and its impacts on a business, several theories and models have been developed. However, there is a notable research gap in the literature in that, to date, no specific model has been proposed to determine the impact of a business-family interface in terms of both conflict and enrichment on the relationship between business and family. Thus, this study was undertaken to address the lack of research pertaining to the various influences of family on family business success including: the merging of family business with other disciplines, the business-family interface of family business owners, the factors that mediate and moderate family and business relationships, the family business owner of small and privately held family business, in a non-western context, and family business in the tourism industry. Consequently, the aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of family dynamics on family business success, the mediation of business-family interface, and the moderating effects of owner and business attributes on family and business of small scale family business in the tourism industry in Sri Lanka